Today’s Solutions: December 15, 2024

According to the World Green Building Council, about 11 percent of the environmental footprint of buildings and construction comes from embodied carbon emissions. This includes all the CO2 emitted in producing the materials needed for creating our built environment.

Seeking more sustainable and scalable materials, a team of experts has come together to develop the world’s first rechargeable cement-based battery — all in a bid to have a multi-story building that could store energy in its own structure, just like a battery.

Developed by researchers Emma Zhang and Luping Tang, the concept involves first a cement-based mixture, with small amounts of short carbon fibers. The mixture is then supplemented with a metal-coated carbon-fiber mesh — iron for the anode, and nickel for the cathode. The resulting product is a rechargeable battery with an average density of 7-watts per square meter.

As explained by designboom, although the battery’s energy density remains low compared to commercial batteries, the volume of concrete would still make it possible to produce a significant amount of energy.

One of the most attractive features of the battery is the fact that it is rechargeable, allowing for different kinds of applications, including storing energy or becoming an energy source itself to power various systems like remote monitoring.

In fact, “the battery can be connected to solar panels and become the power source for monitors on highways and bridges, for example, where the sensors detect cracks or corrosion,” explains Zhang.

Image source: Chalmers University of Technology

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

This beautiful concrete home has trees spilling out the windows

We don’t typically publish stories about the design of individual homes, but sometimes you need to give credit where it’s due. In Ha Long, ...

Read More

Americans are finally starting to embrace the bidet

Bidet sales are up in America! Editorial confession: We’ve been hoping to write something like that for a long time. If you don’t know ...

Read More

New implant cools nerves and cuts pain, reducing opioid need

In response to the ongoing opioid epidemic, medical researchers are developing viable alternatives to pain management. While opioids have proven effective at managing pain, ...

Read More

Tova Friedman survived Auschwitz—Now she’s sharing her story on TikTok

Visitors routinely overwhelm Tova Friedman's TikTok account with tough questions, such as: Why didn't she try to flee Auschwitz? Could she hear screams coming ...

Read More