In an innovation in the field of electric vehicles, Chinese scientists are reusing oil to spark a true revolution in energy storage.
This discovery could make the future of sustainable energy cleaner and more efficient. The residual oil serves as a base for developing a powerful material intended for energy storage applications.
Reusing oil for energy storage
In a context where energy demand is continuously increasing, supercapacitors are gaining relevance due to their fast charging and discharging capabilities, ideal for high-performance applications such as electric vehicles (EVs).
The new method by the researchers not only offers a sustainable solution for manufacturing these supercapacitors, but also addresses waste management issues and energy efficiency.
Oil would be reused for energy storage.
The development is led by a team from the University of Science and Technology of Shanghai, along with the University of Tongji.
This is an innovative approach to convert waste oils into high-performance carbon materials. They used linoleic acid (residual oil) and melamine as precursors to create nitrogen-doped hierarchical porous carbons (HPCs), known for their large surface area and excellent electrical conductivity.
The process involves heating these materials at high temperatures and chemically activating them with potassium hydroxide (KOH). As a result, a material with a specific surface area of up to 3,474.1 m²/g is obtained.
This area is crucial for storing more electrical charge, similar to how a sponge with more pores retains more water.
Moreover, the mesopores (intermediate-sized pores) represent more than 70% of the total pore space in these materials, significantly improving ion transport.
A sustainable solution for electric vehicles
This discovery not only addresses the challenges of energy storage but also promotes a circular economy by reusing waste such as residual oil and turning it into useful materials. This reduces environmental impacts and creates more resource-efficient technologies.
China’s advances in electric cars.
The incorporation of nitrogen, facilitated by melamine, enhances electrical conductivity and introduces active sites in the carbon structure, increasing its electrochemical reactivity.
This allowed the HPCs to achieve a specific capacitance of 430.2 F/g and maintain an 86.5% capacity retention after 2,000 charge/discharge cycles. It’s like having a battery that barely loses power after years of intensive use.
“We are optimizing the pore structure and using nitrogen doping to enhance the performance of supercapacitors, opening up new possibilities for sustainable and highly efficient energy storage,” emphasized Dr. Suyun Xu, the project lead.
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