Wood fiber batteries

Liangbing Hu and Nicholas Weadock from the University of Maryland, are working on a “wooden” battery. The idea is to use the natural fibrous structures present in the structure, to stimulate the charged particles and to create an electric current.
These batteries also would replace the commonly used lithium with sodium. Since sodium is not as effective in the maintenance phase of charging, these batteries won’t be used for mobile phones, but they could be useful for storing large amounts of energy from sources such as the sun and the wind.
The batteries of “wood” are made of fiber a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper. These fibers are woven and then coated with a thin layer of tin which helps the flow of current to pass through the device. The combination of these elements is then placed inside a metal disc.
The combination of wood and sodium is more abundant and affordable. The team is also examining the possibility of creating a long-lasting and eco-friendly battery.