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Making cell phone batteries out of mushrooms

Portabello mushrooms: on the grill; in a salad; powering your cell phone?

Cengiz and Mihri Ozkan, a husband-and-wife team of professors at the Bourns College of Engineering at the University of California-Riverside, are developing a way to make cleaner, greener, longer-lasting cell phone batteries out of delicious portabello mushrooms.

“We process mushrooms by heating them up to between 700-1100 degrees Celsius,” Cengiz Ozkan told Yahoo Canada.

“This produces porous nanoribbons as an anode material.”

Anodes are a crucial part of any battery. They are electrodes, through which conventional current flows into a device.

And they’re a bit of a problem when it comes to seeking greener ways to make things go.

“Our mushroom-based anodes are produced without the use of environmentally harsh chemicals, such as acids and bases,” Mihri Ozkan explained, contrasting the new approach with the traditional way of preparing natural graphite – the standard material for battery use.

“Per ton of natural graphite, 132 kg of highly concentrated sulfuric acid and 120 kg of hydrofluoric acid is used. After washing, roughly 2.3 tonnes of waste water is produced per ton of graphite. This is a serious environmental concern today.”

Not only are the Ozkans’ mushroom-derived anodes significantly greener, they last longer – actually improving in performance as they are used.

“Embedded into the nanoribbons, there are blind holes that are not originally active,” noted Cengiz.

“Over time, with battery usage, these are opening up. This increases the total surface area of the anode material.”

And that makes it work better, and more efficiently – the exact opposite of the batteries you’re using now.

But there’s an even bigger potential application for this process. How about a better way of building batteries for electric cars?

“There is huge demand for lithium-ion batteries today to power electric vehicles,” Mihri says.

“Tesla today uses graphitic anodes in their batteries. Our goal is to produce similar materials with green and sustainable approaches, with minimal damage to our environment.”

Cengiz adds that the couple has patent disclosure on the technology, and the next step is to find a major car or battery manufacturer to bring their discovery to market. The Ozkans are clearly confident they have discovered a breakthrough technology, which will be embraced by the electric car industry.

“The main purpose of buying an electric vehicle is to have zero carbon emission to keep our environment clean.” Mihri says.

“However, if making the batteries used in those cars is causing serious damage to the environment, it kind of defeats the purpose

“In the end, we only have one world to live on.”