How to Turn a Brick Into a Power-Storage-Brick
You may have heard that scientists in St Louis, Missouri, are turning bricks into batteries or more precisely supercapacitors. Bricks have porous surfaces that make them great for storing electricity, so they’re a natural choice.
An automated system raises huge bricks full of compressed dirt during periods of excess solar or wind energy production. When power demand peaks, the bricks are lowered, spinning generators to generate electricity.
The technology
Bricks are among the world’s cheapest and most familiar building materials, but now they can be used to store energy as well. Engineers have developed a method for turning the material into a “smart” brick that can convert electrical energy into gravitational potential energy, then back again to power appliances when needed.
The technology uses a web of plastic nanofibers to cover each brick in an energy storage layer, which can be recharged over 10,000 times without losing more than 10% of its capacity. The bricks can then be stacked to form energy storage modules that are small enough to fit into the spaces where current solar panels are installed.
When a power plant is producing more electricity than it needs, it can send the excess to this system, which is located in an underground pit. The bricks are lowered, and they absorb the energy of gravity until they have stored enough to spin a motor that generates electricity again. The whole process is accelerated or slowed using an artificial intelligence computer system that optimizes efficiency.
This is just one example of powerwall a range of technologies being deployed to solve the problem of how to deal with the peaks and troughs in renewable energy generation. Other methods include pumped hydro, batteries, compressed air energy storage and flywheels.
The materials
Bricks are some of the cheapest and most familiar building materials around, and now scientists have found a way to turn them into energy storage units that can charge to hold electricity, much like batteries. Julio D’Arcy and colleagues at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri have developed a method to convert standard red bricks into supercapacitors, which take 13 minutes to charge fully and can be recharged 10,000 times. They’re also strong enough to be incorporated into walls and used as backup power for homes, as well as providing emergency power in case of blackouts.
The team first drilled small holes into standard bricks and then pumped hydrochloric acid through the pores. This dissolved the haematite mineral that gives red brick its color, and then they pumped in a compound called poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene). The monomer reacted with the iron oxide to deposit a layer of electrically conductive PEDOT. They then filled the remaining pores with a gel electrolyte, and then put two bricks together to form a supercapacitor.
The device isn’t yet as powerful as a lithium-ion battery, but it could still be an important advance in green energy. If bricks can be made to double as energy-storing devices, it will make solar power a lot more useful than just pumping hot water into insulated tanks when the sun isn’t shining.
The process
Bricks are one of the most ubiquitous construction materials on earth, from Neolithic dwellings to ranch-style homes and modern McMansions. Now, researchers have transformed standard bricks into energy storage devices capable of turning on LED lights. Their work is described this week in the journal Nature Communications.
The team used the iron chemical compounds that give bricks their red color to store energy. They dissolved those chemicals with acid to create a solution that coated the surface of each brick. Then, they applied a layer of special conductive plastic known as PEDOT to cover each brick’s pores. This deposited ions throughout the brick structure, converting the bricks into a type of supercapacitor that can absorb and discharge electricity rapidly.
This proof-of-concept synthesis utilizes the open microstructure and thermal stability of fired brick to permeate acid and monomer vapor through its porous composition at 160 degC for controllable a-Fe2O3 dissolution, Fe3+ hydrolysis, and oxidative radical polymerization. During cycling, ions migrate through the nanofibrillar PEDOT-coated brick electrodes and contribute to the areal capacitance.
The system is orders of magnitude more efficient than storing electricity in batteries or pumping water into insulated storage tanks. It can absorb and discharge energy in seconds, and can be accelerated or slowed via artificial intelligence computerised control to match the power grid’s load. And it uses an ultralow-cost material—bricks—along with existing infrastructure, making the technology a cost-effective alternative to other stationary energy storage systems.
The application
The cheapest and most familiar building material around Lithium battery 20kwh can be used as an energy storage unit, much like a battery. Researchers at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, have discovered how to turn the red pigment in common bricks into a plastic that conducts electricity. Their proof-of-concept brick battery can be connected to solar panels to store reversible energy.
The research team’s brick-based energy storage technology uses a special type of conducting polymer called PEDOT. They applied the PEDOT to the surface of the brick, which penetrated its pores and transformed the iron chemical compounds within into a plastic that can store charge. The brick’s porous structure makes it a good choice for storing energy, since its pores offer greater brick area than solid materials. The larger the area, the more electricity a supercapacitor can hold.
Bricks are already widely used in walls and buildings, but they’re not usually thought of as having any other purpose. This new innovation can help repurpose the many brick buildings that exist in cities, using them to keep power flowing when the grid is down or to provide an alternative energy source during outages.
The Power Storage Brick can be paired with a solar panel and become an off-grid energy source for your home, reducing your dependence on the electric grid and saving you money on your utility bills. It can also be used to keep devices charged, such as cell phones and tablets, even without a power outlet.
