GERMI Develops Biodegradable Paper Supercapacitors from Seaweed

We at Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI), manufacture the thinnest, lightest, biodegradable, fastest full charge (within 10 seconds), high tensile strength and performance as well as cost effective paper based super capacitors made from marine macroalgae. Recently, this work has also been published in the peer reviewed journal BioNanoSciecne (Springer publications) and is successfully patented. Supercapacitors are electrochemical charge storage devices that have fast charge/discharge cycles, high power density and longer cycle life. It can be used in electronics, memory backup systems, airbags, heavy machinery, electric vehicles, etc. So it’s going to be a very big market in the next few decades.

Leading scientist Dr. Priyank Bhutiya and Dr. Syed Zaheer Hassan who is a marine biopolymer scientist who has extracted cellulose nanofibers from seaweed and embedded rGO-ZnO nanowires on top of seaweed cellulose nanofibers to obtain anodic paper supercapacitors. Cheatomorpha green seaweed antennae were collected from Porbandar, Gujarat region. The process for making paper supercapacitors is very simple and they are made by hand. It must be used as the anode material in the device. Dr. Brijesh Tripathi from PDEU has tested this device up to 6000 cycles for performance and observed the same performance across all cycles without any degradation. The energy density of this device is 9.5 Wh/Kg and the series resistance is 120 Ω. This paper-based supercapacitor device was tested under various analytical techniques. Dr Abdul Rasheed, Dr PLS Rao and Rahul Kapadiya from GERMI who have been co-authored were also involved in the study.

This study found that marine cellulose-based anode materials help in the development of the thinnest paper supercapacitors used in almost all smart electronic devices and also generate economies for coastal communities from cultivating seaweed to manufacturing paper supercapacitors from seaweed.

Please find links for research papers published in the peer reviewed journal BioNanoScience (Springer Publications) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12668-023-01101-5

Source: http://www.germi.org/