Bricks – the red rectangles that buildings were made from a hundred years ago – could someday be the battery that powers your house.
At Washington University, researchers were looking for energy storage materials that could replace lithium, which is temperamental and can be expensive. The group was testing rust, which gives bricks their signature red color, and decided to see if bricks could be made to store electricity.
The scientists soaked the bricks with PEDOT, a nanofibrous polymer that conducts electricity. Bricks are porous, and the PEDOT filled the pores, giving the bricks’ interiors huge amounts of surface area to collect electric charges and turning them into “electricity sponges” or super-capacitors, which store less electricity than batteries but charge much faster and last longer.
To prove the concept worked, the researchers infused a treated brick with three watts of electricity in ten seconds, which then powered a green LED for ten minutes. Fifty of the bricks could provide emergency lighting for five hours.
Also, because the bricks charge quickly, they could be recharged by solar panels or other renewable power sources almost as fast as they deliver their power.
TRENDPOST: The future of batteries isn’t to build a better box but to turn everyday items – computer cases, car chassis, and even bricks – into storage devices that eliminate the need for external attachments to supply electricity.
