Along with a staggering waste of human liveliness , the pandemic has produce a waste crisis of a different variety : all the masks , baseball mitt , and other single - consumption personal protective equipmentthrown away . One team bid a potential resolution , having found a way to reprocess surgical mask into something that tackles an even heavy problem : mood change .
Professor Anvar Zakhidovof Russia ’s National University of Science and Technology and researchers at three Mexican institutions disinfected lay waste to operative masks and dipped them in graphene ink . high temperature processing then converted the masks into electrodes , while masquerade fabric sue in a different style was used as separate material to produce supercapacitors .
They describe the manufacturing unconscious process and performance indicators in theJournal of Energy Storage .
Supercapacitorsoperate differently from traditional barrage fire , but they do the same job , storing electrical energy for when it is needed . Zakhidov proposes household uses such as clock or lamp , but at long last if the idea is scaled up it could help oneself give solar and thread the backup to give the axe fossil fuel .
Crucially , “ the material is pressed … and heated to 140 ° C ( ceremonious supercapacitor battery ask very high temperature for pyrolysis - carbonation , up to 1,000 - 1,300 ° C [ 1,800 - 2,400 ° F ] , while the new technology reduce DOE consumption by a factor of 10 ) , ” Zakhidov said in astatement .
With an almost endless provision of the raw materials and little energy requirements in the processing , the Cartesian product has the potential to be very cheap . Moreover , Zakhidov and co - authors claim their product has a density of vigor storage almost ten times that of competing technology , order it in the stove of commercial viability . The team then deal to more than double over their previous DOE denseness phonograph recording to 208 James Watt hours per kilogram by adding Ca3Co4O9 - δoxide nanoparticles . That ’s denser than distinctive electric automobile assault and battery , although the compare is imperfect since car battery require extra promotional material .
Speaking of packaging , Zakhidov ’s squad case their product in protective shell made from fling bleb gang such as are used to store medications .
Like other supercapacitors , their production can secrete its energy quickly , giving it advantage over manyenergy memory board technologies .
The fact the good performance for the barrage required cobalt could be an obstruction to mass yield , since assault and battery manufacturers are desperately look for replacements for the scarce metal , whose production is plagued byhuman rights abuses . Nevertheless , the cobalt - free version is dense enough for some intent , even if no backup can be found .
The mind of turning side masks into energy storage devices might seem rather random , but many porous materials have been tested for this purpose , including wastefulness car tire and coconut shells . Although these frequently work , they ordinarily require high temperature processing .
Zakhidov has not reported whether N95s are as superior for energy storage , compared to traditional masks , as they are forkeeping out virus .
[ H / T : RenewEconomy ]
