Dr Teng Li and Liangbing Hu of University of Maryland have been working on lithium or sodium based batteries and have used a unique material in the batteries that has not been thought before – wood. In batteries typically, the positive ion shuttles between the electrodes as it goes through its electrical cycle. Lithium is used more often since it is smaller, and thus better electrically though sodium may be the better candidate for its abundance and low cost.
Their method was to employ wood fibers, coated with carbon nanotubes to make it conductive and tin to make an electrode material that can expand and contract with the ion flow. It worked very well and the battery has been through several cycles of charging and discharging.
Interestingly, their innovation combined modern materials like carbon nanotubes with wood and was unique because scientists have been thinking about other man-made materials that are much more expensive but did not think about wood that makes the ideal substrate.
Thus, keeping everything open as a possibility, makes it possible to truly innovate. One does not have to think about completely novel materials to be innovative.
