MISiS: Technology for obtaining batteries from medical waste

Main article: Batteries (global market)

2022: Introduction to Low Cost Battery Technology

Scientists at NITU MISiS together with colleagues from the USA and Mexico have developed a new technology for obtaining economical batteries from medical waste. This was announced by the institute on January 27, 2022. According to the authors, the technology will turn waste, which is difficult to dispose of, into raw materials.

According to researchers at NITU MISiS, during the coronavirus pandemic, the inhabitants of the planet began to use more than 130 billion masks every month, which turn into hundreds of tons of polymer waste. When they are burned, toxic gases are released, so the task of recycling these wastes is especially important.

Scientists at NITU MISiS together with foreign colleagues have developed a technology for obtaining economical batteries from used masks, where waste packages from drugs are also used as shells. Thus, the basis for creating food elements is created by medical waste, only graphene needs to be purchased.

This technology allows you to get thin, flexible, cheap batteries, which at the expense of low cost can be disposable. They exceed in a number of parameters heavier, metal-coated traditional batteries, which require more production costs. Batteries can be used in household devices, from hours to lamps.

To create a supercapacitor type battery, the following algorithm is used: first, the masks are disinfected with ultrasound, then dipped in graphene ink, which impregnate the mask. Then the material is pressed under pressure, heated to 140 degrees Celsius (when creating conventional supercapacitor batteries, a very high temperature is required for pyrolysis-carbonation, up to 1000-1300 degrees Celsius, and the presented technology reduces energy consumption by 10 times). A gasket (also of mask material) with insulating properties is then placed between the two electrodes of the new material. It is impregnated with a special electrolyte, and then a protective shell is created from the material of packages of drugs (such as paracetamol), "said Anvar Zahidov, professor, scientific director of the infrastructure project" High-performance polymer tandem photovoltaics based on hybrid perovskites. "

These batteries, compared to traditional analogues, have a high density of stored energy and electric capacity. Previously created using a similar technology, tablet batteries had a capacity of 10 watt-hours per 1 kg, and scientists at NITU MISiS and their foreign colleagues managed to get 98 watt-hours/kg.

When the developers decided to add nanoparticles inorganic perovskite type CaCoO to the electrodes obtained from masks, the energy capacity of the batteries increased by an additional twice (208 watt-hours/kg). A large electric capacity of 1706 pharads per gram was achieved (This is significantly higher compared to the capacity of the best carbonized electrodes without graphene addition (1000 pharads per gram).

Researchers have previously tried to use different porous natural materials and waste to make electrodes for supercapacitors. These were coconut shells, rice husks, and recently even newspaper waste, tire waste from cars, and others. But working with them always required high-temperature annealing (charring) in special furnaces. Masks turned out to be a simpler and cheaper material for processing, since impregnation with graphene is sufficient to give them special properties.

In the future, researchers plan to use this technology to produce batteries for electric vehicles, solar power plants and other applications.