Posted by An eco-friendly technology has been developed that can efficiently harvest and store electrical energy even in an extremely low temperature environment of -80 °C using sulfonated beta-cyclodextrin.
The National Research Foundation of Korea announced that Professor Jinhyeong Lim’s research team at Kongju National University developed a supercapacitor hybrid system that can operate effectively at such temperatures by applying a cyclodextrin-based core material [1]
In some batteries, as the temperature decreases, the internal resistance of the battery increases rapidly and the mobility of lithium ions significantly decreases. The rapid decrease in energy and power that occurs at this time leads to stability problems.
To date, research on cryogenic energy harvesting and storage devices is in its early stages and results are insufficient.
The research team presented a solution to the problems of low charge mobility and stability at low temperatures, which were considered major obstacles to using existing electric energy storage devices in cryogenic environments, and proposed a new self-charging energy storage system that can be used even at extreme temperatures.
The research group explored the composition range in which the modified cyclodextrin-based core material as the main electrode material of the system can operate with high efficiency while being chemically stable. As a result of the experiment, they developed a self-driving device that stably generates wireless signals even at -80 degrees Celsius.
The research group envisions a space clothing in a cryogenic environment that converts piezoelectric/friction energy from the movement of the human body into electricity and uses it as an energy harvesting/storage device. A system with self-driving elements can also be used as a wearable device, allowing it to perform energy harvesting and storage functions driven by general human movement.
The results of this research, which was carried out with the support of a basic laboratory project promoted by the National Research Foundation of Korea and outstanding scientists from local universities, were published in the Chemical Engineering Journal [2].
[1] https://biz.heraldcorp.com/view.php?ud=20240221050490
[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1385894724004145