Could bread mould build a better rechargeable battery?

A naturally occurring red bread mould could be the key to producing more sustainable electrochemical materials for use in rechargeable batteries, researchers at the University of Dundee have found.

Their findings have shown for the first time that that the fungus Neurospora crassa – commonly known as red bread mould – can transform manganese into a mineral composite with favourable electrochemical properties.

The researchers combined the fungus with urea and manganese chloride and watched what happened. The combination of these factors resulted in a ‘biomineralised’’ product which was subsequently subjected to intense heat treatment. This produced a mixture of carbonised biomass and manganese oxides.

Tests on these structures showed that they have ideal electrochemical properties for use in supercapacitors or lithium-ion batteries. The carbonised fungal biomass-mineral composite was found to retain 90% of its capacity after 200 cycles of charging, making it an ideal target for using in rechargeable batteries.

Read more at University of Dundee

Image Credit: Wikipedia

-jk-