University of South Carolina researchers convert T-shirt into energy storage medium
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University of South Carolina’s Xiaodong Li and his post-doctoral associate Lihong Bao worked together on the project
"Previous methods used oil or environmentally unfriendly chemicals as starting materials," said Li.
The South Carolina-based researchers believe their material could be used to charge low-power portable devices such as cell phones.
The newly manganese oxide-treated activated carbon textile fabric is able to maintain 95 percent of its performance, even after thousands of charge-discharge cycles
The activated carbon textile material is capable of acting as a double-layer capacitor
Li’s team soaked the material in a solution of fluoride, dried it and then baked the fabric at high temperature
The new material has been dubbed “activated carbon textile”
The researchers used a standard T-shirt purchased from a local discount store for their work
Article Summary
As manufacturers of smartphones and mobile devices strive to make their products increasingly portable, they repeatedly come up against the constraints of existing battery technology. However, Xiaodong Li, a professor at the University of South Carolina (USC) believes that we will soon be able to employ the clothes we wear to help overcome such challenges and to this end, Li has transformed T-shirt material into an energy storage medium which could one day be used to power portable devices.
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