Batteries made from this one-of-a-kind material will soon replace lithium-ion batteries in electric cars

Scientists have researched and developed a new type of battery to protect the environment.

This new battery can be made from crab shells.

In the journey against climate change, the world is said to have come a long way when promoting the development of electric cars. Unlike petrol cars, which release fossil fuels into the atmosphere, polluting the planet's shield - electric cars are essentially battery powered, not polluting excessively.

However, there is still a point to be warned. Like all rechargeable products, the development of electric vehicles depends on the proliferation of batteries.

"The number of batteries being produced and consumed increases the likelihood of environmental problems," said Liangbing Hu, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Materials Innovation. "For example, polypropylene and polycarbonate separators take hundreds or thousands of years to degrade and place an additional burden on the environment."

Not to mention the human rights violations that occur in places where battery components like cobalt are produced.

 The chitosan used in the battery prototypes was completely decomposed in 5 months.

What is the solution to this problem? In a paper published last week in the journal Matter, Hu and colleagues presented the invention of a battery that is much more biodegradable than lithium-ion batteries. Oddly enough, it's made from crab shells.

In principle, phone batteries use a special substance called an electrolyte to shuffle ions, or charged particles, between the cathode and anode to generate electricity. The electrolyte in current batteries uses chemicals that are flammable and very difficult to biodegrade. Meanwhile, the battery that Hu and colleagues developed in the form of a gel was found in a biological material called chitosan. This is a biodegradable substance.

"Chitosan is a derivative of chitin. There are many sources for chitin such as the cells of fungi, the exoskeleton of crustaceans and squid," Hu said. But the richest sources of chitosan, according to Hu, are in the exoskeletons of crustaceans, such as shrimp tails, lobster shells and, of course, crab shells.

"Do you know where to find those crab shells? Seafood stores. You can find it on your table," Hu said.

According to a 2015 study in the journal Nature, about 6-8 million tons of discarded crab, shrimp and lobster shells are produced globally. Think of how the flesh of a crab makes up only about 40% of its mass. This certainly creates quite a bit of food waste.

These shells of crabs and shrimp are often dumped in landfills or the sea.

So, from a bio-degradable battery manufacturing standpoint, imagine all that crab shells could be reused into something useful, helping to protect the planet.

According to the Hu team's research, the chitosan used in their battery prototypes completely degraded within 5 months, leaving behind a metallic component of zinc - not just or lithium like standard batteries. With zinc, they are completely recyclable.

Looking at the image above, it can be seen that the battery material of the Hu group has decomposed almost completely into the soil after 5 months.

The batteries they create are also 99.7% energy efficient after 1,000 charge cycles, which means it's a viable option for storing wind or solar energy in the grid. That's a huge improvement given that most hosting options these days are pretty average in performance. The crab shell-derived ingredient could be the missing piece for batteries to evolve to a new level, the researchers say.

For now, Hu says using chitosan as an electrolyte in batteries can help biodegrade two-thirds of the battery's components, but in the future, the team hopes to be able to tackle the remaining one-third. .

"In the future, I hope all the components in the battery are biodegradable," Hu said.