The researchers processed the pollen under high temperatures in a chamber containing argon gas using a procedure called pyrolysis, yielding pure carbon in the original shape of the pollen particles. They were further processed, or “activated,” by heating at lower temperature—about 300 degrees Celsius—in the presence of oxygen, forming pores in the carbon structures to increase their energy-storage capacity.
The research showed the pollen anodes could be charged at various rates. While charging for 10 hours resulted in a full charge, charging them for only one hour resulted in more than half of a full charge, Pol says. “The theoretical capacity of graphite is 372 milliamp hours per gram, and we achieved 200 milliamp hours after one hour of charging,” he adds.
The researchers tested the carbon at 25 degrees Celsius and 50 degrees Celsius to simulate a range of climates.
“This is because the weather-based degradation of batteries is totally different in New Mexico compared to Indiana,” Pol says.
Findings showed the cattail pollens performed better than bee pollen.
The work is ongoing. Whereas the current work studied the pollen in only anodes, future research will include work to study them in a full-cell battery with a commercial cathode.
“We are just introducing the fascinating concept here,” Pol says. “Further work is needed to determine how practical it might be.”
The US Department of Energy helped support the project. Research findings are detailed in a paper in Scientific Reports.
Republished from Futurity.org as a derivative work under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Original article posted to Futurity by Emil Venere-Purdue.
Featured Photo Credit: Lennart Tange/flickr, CC BY 2.0