Synthesis and characterization of iota-carrageenan biopolymer electrolyte with lithium perchlorate and succinonitrile (plasticizer)

Recent Progress in Polysaccharide-Based Materials for Energy Applications: A Review

In recent years, polysaccharides have emerged as a promising alternative for the development of environmentally friendly materials. Polysaccharide-based materials have been mainly studied for applications in the food, packaging, and biomedical industries. However, many investigations report processing routes and treatments that enable the modification of the inherent properties of polysaccharides, making them useful as materials for energy applications. The control of the ionic and electronic conductivities of polysaccharide-based materials allows for the development of solid electrolytes and electrodes. The incorporation of conductive and semiconductive phases can modify the permittivities of polysaccharides, increasing their capacity for charge storage, making them useful as active surfaces of energy harvesting devices such as triboelectric nanogenerators. Polysaccharides are inexpensive and abundant and could be considered as a suitable option for the development and improvement of energy devices. This review provides an overview of the main research work related to the use of both common commercially available polysaccharides and local native polysaccharides, including starch, chitosan, carrageenan, ulvan, agar, and bacterial cellulose. Solid and gel electrolytes derived from polysaccharides show a wide range of ionic conductivities from 0.0173 × 10-3 to 80.9 × 10-3 S cm-1. Electrodes made from polysaccharides show good specific capacitances ranging from 8 to 753 F g-1 and current densities from 0.05 to 5 A g-1. Active surfaces based on polysaccharides show promising results with power densities ranging from 0.15 to 16 100 mW m-2. These investigations suggest that in the future polysaccharides could become suitable materials to replace some synthetic polymers used in the fabrication of energy storage devices, including batteries, supercapacitors, and energy harvesting devices.

Using algae in Li-ion batteries: A sustainable pathway toward greener energy storage

This paper reviews and analyzes the innovations and advances in using algae and their derivatives in different parts of Li-ion batteries. Applications in Li-ion battery anodes, electrolytes, binders, and separators were discussed. Algae provides a sustainable feedstock for different materials that can be used in Li-ion batteries, such as carbonaceous material, biosilica, biopolymers, and other materials that have unique micro- and nano-structures that act as biotemplates for composites structure design. Natural materials and biotemplates provided by algae have various advantages, such as electrochemical and thermal stability, porosity that allows higher storage capacity, nontoxicity, and other properties discussed in the paper. Results reveal that despite algae and its derivatives being a promising renewable feedstock for different applications in Li-ion batteries, more research is yet to be performed to evaluate its feasibility of being used in the industry.

Composite polymer electrolytes with ionic liquid grafted-Laponite for dendrite-free all-solid-state lithium metal batteries

Composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs) with high ionic conductivity and favorable electrolyte/electrode interfacial compatibility are promising alternatives to liquid electrolytes. However, severe parasitic reactions in the Li/electrolyte interface and the air-unstable inorganic fillers have hindered their industrial applications. Herein, surface-edge opposite charged Laponite (LAP) multilayer particles with high air stability were grafted with imidazole ionic liquid (IL-TFSI) to enhance the thermal, mechanical, and electrochemical performances of polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based CPEs. The electrostatic repulsion between multilayers of LAP-IL-TFSI enables them to be easily penetrated by PEO segments, resulting in a pronounced amorphous region in the PEO matrix. Therefore, the CPE-0.2LAP-IL-TFSI exhibits a high ionic conductivity of 1.5 × 10-3 S cm-1 and a high lithium-ion transference number of 0.53. Moreover, LAP-IL-TFSI ameliorates the chemistry of the solid electrolyte interphase, significantly suppressing the growth of lithium dendrites and extending the cycling life of symmetric Li cells to over 1000 h. As a result, the LiFePO4||CPE-0.2LAP-IL-TFSI||Li cell delivers an outstanding capacity retention of 80% after 500 cycles at 2C at 60 °C. CPE-LAP-IL-TFSI also shows good compatibility with high-voltage LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathodes.

Glutaraldehyde-pea protein grafted polysaccharide matrices for functioning as covalent immobilizers

Three polysaccharide matrices (κ-Carrageenan (Carr), gellan gum, and agar) were grafted via glutaraldehyde (GA) and pea protein (PP). The grafted matrices covalently immobilized β-D-galactosidase (β-GL). Nonetheless, grafted Carr acquired the topmost amount of immobilized β-GL (iβ-GL). Thus, its grafting process was honed via Box-Behnken design and was further characterized via FTIR, EDX, and SEM. The optimal GA-PP-Carr grafting comprised processing Carr beads with 10% PP dispersion of pH 1 and 25% GA solution. The optimal GA-PP-Carr beads acquired 11.44 Ug^-1 iβ-GL with 45.49% immobilization efficiency. Both free and GA-PP-Carr iβ-GLs manifested their topmost activity at the selfsame temperature and pH. Nonetheless, the β-GL K_m and V_max values were reduced following immobilization. The GA-PP-Carr iβ-GL manifested good operational stability. Moreover, its storage stability was incremented where 91.74% activity was offered after 35 storage days. The GA-PP-Carr iβ-GL was utilized to degrade lactose in whey permeate with 81.90% lactose degradation efficiency.

Insight into the Key Factors in High Li+ Transference Number Composite Electrolytes for Solid Lithium Batteries

Solid lithium batteries (SLBs) have received much attention due to their potential to achieve secondary batteries with high energy density and high safety. The solid electrolyte (SE) is believed to be the essential material for SLBs. Among the recent SEs, composite electrolytes have good interfacial compatibility and customizability, which have been broadly investigated as promising contenders for commercial SLBs. The high Li⁺ transference number (t Li + ${{_{{\rm Li}{^{+}}}}}$ ) of composite electrolytes is critically important concerning the power/energy density and cycling life of SLBs, however, which is often overlooked. This Review presents a current opinion on the key factors in high t Li + ${{_{{\rm Li}{^{+}}}}}$ composite electrolytes, including polymers, Li-salts, inorganic fillers, and additives. Various strategies concerning providing a continuous pathway for Li-ions and immobilizing anions via component interaction are discussed. This Review highlights the major obstacles hindering the development of high t Li + ${{_{{\rm Li}{^{+}}}}}$ composite electrolytes and proposes future research directions for developing composite electrolytes with high t Li + ${{_{{\rm Li}{^{+}}}}}$ .

Thermal insulation properties of lightweight, self-healing, and mesoporous carrageenan/PMMA cryogels

The development of new bio-based cryogel materials with low environmental impact and various properties such as self-healing, flame-retardancy, low thermal conductivity has emerged as a cutting-edge research topic in special-purpose materials and a significant challenge. Herein, we report a simple processing methodology for preparing new mesoporous light weight thermal insulation biomass hybrid cryogels based on natural and biocompatible polymers, including marine glycosaminoglycan carrageenan moss (CM) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) abbreviated as CM/PMMA under cryo conditions. The mechanical, thermal, and physicochemical characterization of the obtained hybrid cryogel was studied. The effect of increasing thickness on thermal conductivity and compressive strength was investigated. The results show that the thermal conductivity increases from 0.068 W m-1 K-1 to 0.124 W m-1 K-1 with increasing thickness. Also, the compressive strength changed from 89.5% MPa to 95.4% MPa. The results revealed that cryogel has a wrinkled surface and interconnected pores and exhibits high flexibility, self-healing ability, flame retardancy, and low thermal conductivity.

Biodegradable and highly conductive polymeric blend based on the latex of Calotropis gigantea as solid electrolyte in energy storage applications

A blend polymer based on the latex of the South-Asian giant milkweed Calotropis gigantea (CGL) combined with poly (vinylidene fluoride)-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDF-HFP) at a mass ratio of 1:1 without the addition of doping salts was synthesized via solution casting to prepare an ionic conductive film. The morphology, crystalline state, vibrational and thermal properties of the film were investigated by Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The ionic conductivity and transport properties were investigated by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) Technique. Due the highest ionic conductivity at room temperature (2.7 x 10−2 S/cm), all-solid-state electrolyte was assembled using the prepared polymer film and a comparative study was conducted with respect to 1M H2SO4 liquid electrolyte, regarding the specific capacitance and the electrical properties. The results demonstrate that the fabricated all-solid-state supercapacitor using PVDF-HFP/CGL blend polymer film as electrolyte matches the performance of the liquid electrolyte.