Packing ‘peanuts’ could be used to manufacture rechargeable batteries. Both polystyrene and starch-based versions could be used for separate components.

The idea came from Purdue University’s school of Chemical Engineering where staff recently moved to a new lab and used a lot of packing peanuts to transport and receive delicate equipment.

While both versions of the peanuts can technically be recycled, the very fact that they are so low-density means it’s usually not cost-effective to transport them in bulk to suitable facilities. Instead, Purdue’s Professor Vilas Pol estimates around 90 percent wind up in landfill where both types take decades to break down and release potentially-contaminating chemicals.

Instead Pol and colleagues experimented with heating the peanuts at a high temperature to change their structure. They found that by heating them at between 500 to 900 degrees Celsius in a furnace designed to provide an inert (virtually no oxygen) atmosphere, they created a carbon material highly suited to producing anodes.

Not only did the ‘peanut’ material work as a replacement for the graphite that’s used as an anode in most rechargeable batteries, but the researchers believe it could even be more effective. They say their anodes are around 10 times thinner than in existing commercial batteries and also have a lower resistance, both of which reduce charging time. They also say that their anodes theoretically allow for higher capacities in similarly-sized batteries.

The Purdue tests also found that the peanut packing-based battery could be recharged 300 times without “significant” loss of capacity.

[Image credit: American Chemical Society]