Storing energy in red bricks

Date:
August 11, 2020
Source:
Washington University in St. Louis
Summary:
Red bricks -- some of the world's cheapest and most familiar
building materials -- can be converted into energy storage units
that can be charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according
to new research.

Chemists have developed a method to make or modify 'smart bricks'
that can store energy until required for powering devices. A
proof-of-concept study shows a brick directly powering a green
LED light.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Imagine plugging in to your brick house.


==========================================================================
Red bricks -- some of the world's cheapest and most familiar building
materials -- can be converted into energy storage units that can be
charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according to new research
from Washington University in St. Louis.

Brick has been used in walls and buildings for thousands of years, but
rarely has been found fit for any other use. Now, chemists in Arts &
Sciences have developed a method to make or modify "smart bricks" that
can store energy until required for powering devices. A proof-of-concept published Aug. 11 in Nature Communications shows a brick directly powering
a green LED light.

"Our method works with regular brick or recycled bricks, and we can
make our own bricks as well," said Julio D'Arcy, assistant professor of chemistry. "As a matter of fact, the work that we have published in Nature Communications stems from bricks that we bought at Home Depot right here
in Brentwood (Missouri); each brick was 65 cents." Walls and buildings
made of bricks already occupy large amounts of space, which could be
better utilized if given an additional purpose for electrical storage.

While some architects and designers have recognized the humble brick's
ability to absorb and store the sun's heat, this is the first time anyone
has tried using bricks as anything more than thermal mass for heating
and cooling.

D'Arcy and colleagues, including Washington University graduate student
Hongmin Wang, first author of the new study, showed how to convert red
bricks into a type of energy storage device called a supercapacitor.

"In this work, we have developed a coating of the conducting polymer
PEDOT, which is comprised of nanofibers that penetrate the inner porous
network of a brick; a polymer coating remains trapped in a brick and
serves as an ion sponge that stores and conducts electricity," D'Arcy
said.

The red pigment in bricks -- iron oxide, or rust -- is essential for
triggering the polymerisation reaction. The authors' calculations suggest
that walls made of these energy-storing bricks could store a substantial
amount of energy.

"PEDOT-coated bricks are ideal building blocks that can provide power
to emergency lighting," D'Arcy said. "We envision that this could be a
reality when you connect our bricks with solar cells -- this could take
50 bricks in close proximity to the load. These 50 bricks would enable
powering emergency lighting for five hours.

"Advantageously, a brick wall serving as a supercapacitor can be recharged hundreds of thousands of times within an hour. If you connect a couple
of bricks, microelectronics sensors would be easily powered."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Washington_University_in_St._Louis. Original written by Talia
Ogliore. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Hongmin Wang, Yifan Diao, Yang Lu, Haoru Yang, Qingjun Zhou, Kenneth
Chrulski, Julio M. D'Arcy. Energy storing bricks for stationary
PEDOT supercapacitors. Nature Communications, 2020; 11 (1) DOI:
10.1038/s41467- 020-17708-1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200811120154.htm

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