Hemp-derived carbon nanosheets help build cheap, high-performance supercapacitors

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margin-right: 9px;">SCIENCE</a> </div>  <h1 id="ar_title">Hemp-derived carbon nanosheets help build cheap, high-performance supercapacitors</h1> <div class="summary_details_left"> <p>By <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/author/dario-borghino/" rel="author">Dario Borghino</a></p> <p><em>August 20, 2014</em></p> </div> <div class="summary_details_right"> <div class="has_comments"><a href="hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor#comments">9 Comments</a></div> </div> </div> <div id="article_share_rail"> <div class="as_button"><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/" data-send="false" data-layout="box_count" data-show-faces="false"></div><script type="text/javascript">_ga.trackFacebook();</script></div> <div class="as_button"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="vertical" data-via="gizmag">Tweet</a></div> <div class="as_button"><div class="g-plusone" data-size="tall" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/"></div></div> <div class="as_button"><iframe style="overflow: hidden; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902if_/http://badge.stumbleupon.com/badge/embed/5/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gizmag.com%2Fhemp-high-performance-supercapacitor%2F33435%2F" width="50" height="60" id="iframe-stmblpn-widget-1"></iframe></div> <div class="as_button"><div class="pin-it-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902oe_/http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/" data-image="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/hemp-carbon-supercapacitor.jpg" data-description="Using waste hemp fibers as the starting material, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors at one thousandth the cost of the more commonly used graphene."></div></div> <div class="as_button"><script type="IN/Share" data-counter="top"></script></div> <div class="as_button" id="reddit_button_rail"><script type="text/javascript">reddit_newwindow='1'</script></div>  </div> <div id="hero_box" style="width: 530px;"> <a id="hero_link" href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/pictures"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902im_/http://images.gizmag.com/hero/hemp-carbon-supercapacitor.jpg" title="Researchers have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors from ..." width="530" height="297" alt="Researchers have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors from ..."/> </a> <div class="pic_caption"> <p>Researchers have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors from hemp inner bark fibers (Photo: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=108915662" target="_blank">Shutterstock</a>)</p> </div> <div class="clear_both"></div> </div> <div class="article_body"> <div id="top_unit"></div> <p>Using waste hemp fibers as the starting material, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors at one thousandth the cost of the more commonly used graphene. The advance could lead to supercapacitors that are both cheaper and able to operate under harsh environmental conditions.</p> <p>Despite a bad reputation, hemp is a truly remarkable plant. It can be grown on the cheap, requiring very little care even in very cold and dry environments, and has many uses, ranging from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/first-us-hemp-house/17115/" target="_Blank">construction material</a> to clothing, bioplastics, and even <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-biodiesel-dope-biofuel/16852/" target="_Blank">biofuel creation</a>.</p> <p>In what may be the most surprising application of the lot, a team led by Prof. David Mitlin was able to build supercapacitor electrodes from the inner bark fibers of (THC-free) hemp, a waste product. Remarkably, the performance of the device was on par or better than standard graphene-based supercapacitors, even though the new material can be obtained at one thousandth of the cost and processed with ease.</p> <p>Hemp inner bark fibers, or "bast fibers," are similar to yarn in their outward appearance; however, when looked at under the microscope, they reveal themselves as a remarkable nanoscale composite consisting of semicellulose, lignin and crystalline cellulose. The latter makes up around 70 percent of the material by weight, and is the component of interest to the researchers, as it can be processed to obtain graphene-like carbon nanosheets.</p> <p>After realizing that the material had a fairly unique structure, Mitlin and colleagues were able to develop a very simple, inexpensive and scalable way to produce carbon nanosheets from them. The researchers first heated the fibers for 24 hours at around 350° F (180° C) – essentially, pressure-cooking them in water – to dissolve the semicellulose and lignin components; they then exposed the resulting material to potassium hydroxide to create graphene-like carbon nanosheets.</p> <p>The resulting sheets are far from perfect, as they are crumpled and riddled with holes. But as it turns out, when it comes to building supercapacitor electrodes, this is a very good thing.</p> <p>In order to build high-efficiency capacitors, the surface area of the electrode must be as high as possible, so that electrically charged ions can access the material easily and transport charge effectively.</p> <p>In its purest form, graphene is a very flat, one-atom thick sheet of carbon atoms. Because they are so flat, when laid out next to each other on a flat surface, the sheets tend to stack on top of each other rather easily. This decreases the surface area of the electrode and, consequently, also the performance of the device over time.</p> <p>The hemp-derived nanosheets, on the other hand, already come pre-crumpled (so they won't tend to stack on top of each other quite as much) and holey (which increases the surface area accessible by ions). The sheets, 10 to 30 nanometers thick, are also highly electrically conductive, which is essential for supercapacitors. Although they aren't quite as conductive as graphite, Mitlin says they are 10 times more conductive than state of the art <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon" target="_blank">activated carbon</a>.</p> <p>The supercapacitors built using the nanosheets performed remarkably well, yielding energy densities up to 12 Wh/kg, about three times higher than commercial counterparts, and power densities over 100 times higher than conventional Li-ion batteries. Unlike other supercapacitors, the device also can also operate under wider temperature margins, from 0 to 100° C (32 to 212° F). However, the most surprising metric is the cost of the material as compared with normal graphene.</p> <p>"Our material is very graphene-like in its performance, but cost-wise it's about one thousand times cheaper," says Mitlin. "As far as manufacturing, we did the cost analysis and it's anywhere between $500 and $1,000 a tonne."</p> <p>Mitlin is now gearing up production for small-scale manufacturing in the US.</p> <p>A paper describing the advance was published on a recent edition of the journal <em><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn400731g" target="_Blank">ACS Nano</a></em>. This research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, and a video of the event is <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/51293957/theater" target="_Blank">available online</a>.</p> <p>Source: <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2014/august/could-hemp-nanosheets-topple-graphene-for-making-the-ideal-supercapacitor.html" target="_blank">American Chemical Society</a></p>  <span class="title share_bar">Share</span> <div id="article_share_bar" class="dotsontop share_bar"> <div class="as_button fb_as_button"><div class="fb-like" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/" data-send="false" data-layout="box_count" data-show-faces="false"></div><script type="text/javascript">_ga.trackFacebook();</script></div> <div class="as_button"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="vertical" data-via="gizmag">Tweet</a></div> <div class="as_button"><div class="g-plusone" data-size="tall" data-href="http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/"></div></div> <div class="as_button stumble_as_button"><iframe style="overflow: hidden; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902if_/http://badge.stumbleupon.com/badge/embed/5/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gizmag.com%2Fhemp-high-performance-supercapacitor%2F33435%2F" width="50" height="60" id="iframe-stmblpn-widget-2"></iframe></div> <div class="as_button"><div class="pin-it-button" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902oe_/http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/" data-image="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/hemp-carbon-supercapacitor.jpg" data-description="Using waste hemp fibers as the starting material, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed a high-performance electrode material for supercapacitors at one thousandth the cost of the more commonly used graphene."></div></div> <div class="as_button"><script type="IN/Share" data-counter="top"></script></div> <div class="as_button" id="reddit_button_bar"><script type="text/javascript">reddit_newwindow='1'</script></div>  </div>   <div id="fm-well-zone" data-cb-ad-id="Content Well 1"> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902js_/http://static.fmpub.net/zone/7980"></script> </div> <div id="bottom_unit" data-cb-ad-id="Content Well 2"></div>  <div style="margin-bottom: 20px"> <div class="OUTBRAIN" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902oe_/http://www.gizmag.com/hemp-high-performance-supercapacitor/33435/" data-widget-id="AR_1" data-ob-template="Gizmag"></div> <script type="text/javascript" async="async" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902js_/http://widgets.outbrain.com/outbrain.js"></script> </div> </div>  <span class="title clear_left" id="author_byline_title">About the Author</span> <div class="dotsontop" id="authorcontainer">  <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/author/dario-borghino/"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20140827103902im_/http://images.gizmag.com/author_profiles/97.jpg" alt="Dario Borghino" id="bio_pic"/> </a>   Dario studied software engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin. When he isn't writing for Gizmag he is usually traveling the world on a whim, working on an AI-guided automated trading system, or chasing his dream to become the next European thumbwrestling champion.   <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/author/dario-borghino/">All articles by Dario Borghino</a> <span id="author_byline_links">   </span> <br class="clear_both"> </div>  <div id="tags"> <span class="title">Tags</span> <div class="dotsontop"> <ul> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/american-chemical-society/" rel="tag">American Chemical Society</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/graphene/" rel="tag">Graphene</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/graphite/" rel="tag">Graphite</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/hemp/" rel="tag">Hemp</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/nanoscale/" rel="tag">Nanoscale</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/supercapacitor/" rel="tag">Supercapacitor</a></li> <li>» <a href="/web/20140827103902/http://www.gizmag.com/tag/university-of-alberta/" rel="tag">University of Alberta</a></li> </ul> <div class="clear_both"></div> </div> </div> <div id="bing_unit"></div>  <span class="title" id="comments">9 Comments</span> <div class="dotsontop"> <div id="comment-331504" class="a_comment"> <p>Now that is exciting! </p> <span class="name">James Rausch</span><br> <span class="date"> 20th August, 2014 @ 06:51 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331507" class="a_comment"> <p>A quick fact check: </p> <p>Article states: </p> <p>"...energy densities up to 12 Wh/kg, about three times higher than commercial counterparts, and power densities over 100 times higher than conventional Li-ion batteries" </p> <p></p> <p>They are pulling a fast one by obfuscating the metrics here. </p> <p>12Wh/kg is an energy density number. Lithium-Ion has an energy density around 200Wh/kg (Up to 300Wh/kg). This is a measure of the total energy contained in the device and Lithium still out performs this by a factor of 10 or more. </p> <p></p> <p>Power density is a completely different metric. It is a measure of how quickly the device can discharge that stored charge. So this capacitor stores one tenth or less the total energy of a lithium battery but can deliver it 100 times as quickly. </p> <p></p> <p>As a practical example this would mean this device could power a motor that would win a drag race, but after the quarter mile you'd have to recharge it. It could absorb the charge 100+ times faster than the lithium battery as well if you had a sufficiently "beefy" charging apparatus. So this capacitor is not yet not a solution to range issues, but would be a great addition to an EV to even out the charge/discharge rate to the main battery while providing sporty performance. </p> <p></p> <p></p> <span class="name">VirtualGathis</span><br> <span class="date"> 20th August, 2014 @ 06:54 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331540" class="a_comment"> <p>Wonder if the cannabis 'marijuana' variation of hemp will suffice? </p> <p>Washington State in the Pacific Northwest may just have a market for the waste stalks of their 'crop' ? </p> <span class="name">Jeffrey A. Edwards</span><br> <span class="date"> 20th August, 2014 @ 08:46 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331651" class="a_comment"> <p>This is great news. There have been health concerns about supergraphene nano particles. I wonder if these have any health implications too. </p> <p></p> <p>Doubtlessly, some kid somewhere will attempt to smoke his battery. </p> <p></p> <span class="name">asdf</span><br> <span class="date"> 20th August, 2014 @ 12:37 pm PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331762" class="a_comment"> <p>Hemp is also pretty good for insulation in houses..; </p> <p>A plant "of the future" ! </p> <span class="name">watersworm</span><br> <span class="date"> 21st August, 2014 @ 03:32 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331855" class="a_comment"> <p>Lead acid batteries are 30 -40 Wh/kg. I guess this might work for really large immobile batteries that might be used to store power from wind turbines and solar. </p> <p></p> <span class="name">mike65401</span><br> <span class="date"> 21st August, 2014 @ 11:47 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-331894" class="a_comment"> <p>it's a cheaper capacitor. good news. </p> <span class="name">frogola</span><br> <span class="date"> 21st August, 2014 @ 03:30 pm PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-332002" class="a_comment"> <p>VirtualGathis </p> <p></p> <p>well said </p> <span class="name">tampa florida</span><br> <span class="date"> 22nd August, 2014 @ 08:21 am PDT</span> </div> <div id="comment-332170" class="a_comment"> <p>"As a practical example this would mean this device could power a motor that would win a drag race, but after the quarter mile you'd have to recharge it. It could absorb the charge 100+ times faster than the lithium battery as well if you had a sufficiently "beefy" charging apparatus. So this capacitor is not yet not a solution to range issues, but would be a great addition to an EV to even out the charge/discharge rate to the main battery while providing sporty performance. </p> <p></p> <p>VirtualGathis” </p> <p></p> <p>I was imagining a warehouse of giant supercapacitors stuffed with this hemp derivative, for soaking up surges of energy from wind and solar power. </p> <p></p> <p>The energy you could cram into the equivalent of a common storage rental building would power a small city... for a few minutes. </p> <p></p> <p>And most important, it’s cheap. </p> <p></p> <p>What if we had scattered “power dump” facilities throughout the country, providing a backup in the case of a windless day or a soaking rainstorm ? </p> <span class="name">William Carr</span><br> <span class="date"> 23rd August, 2014 @ 03:22 pm PDT</span> </div> </div> <span class="title">Post a Comment</span> <div class="dotsontop" id="comment_form_div"> <div id="comment_form" data-article="33435"> 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Hemp-derived carbon nanosheets help build cheap, high-performance supercapacitors