Abstract
Sustainable sources of energy have been identified as a possible way out of today's oil dependency and are being rapidly developed. In contrast, storage of energy to a large extent still relies on heavy metals in batteries. Especially when built from biomass‐derived organics, organic batteries are promising alternatives and pave the way towards truly sustainable energy storage. First described in 2008, research on biomass‐derived electrodes has been taken up by a multitude of researchers worldwide. Nowadays, in principle, electrodes in batteries could be composed of all kinds of carbonized and noncarbonized biomass: On one hand, all kinds of (waste) biomass may be carbonized and used in anodes of lithium‐ or sodium‐ion batteries, cathodes in metal–sulfur or metal–oxygen batteries, or as conductive additives. On the other hand, a plethora of biomolecules, such as quinones, flavins, or carboxylates, contain redox‐active groups that can be used as redox‐active components in electrodes with very little chemical modification. Biomass‐based binders can replace toxic halogenated commercial binders to enable a truly sustainable future of energy storage devices. Besides the electrodes, electrolytes and separators may also be synthesized from biomass. In this Review, recent research progress in this rapidly emerging field is summarized with a focus on potentially fully biowaste‐derived batteries.
Highlights
In 2008, Chen et al presented dilithium rhodizonate as a biomass-derived sustainable cathode material for lithium-ion batteries with a high charge storage capability at a reasonable potential
In contrast to nonrenewable sources of energy, which can rather be stored in tanks and used when needed, renewable sources of energy predominantly produce electrical energy, which requires more sophisticated storage devices
All other classes of material need to be synthesized from petrochemical precursors, or require harsh, unsustainable modifications of biomass-derived chemicals and are, as such, not as sustainable as chemicals that are directly available in regrown biomass or can be synthesized from biomass in benign reactions
Summary
In 2008, Chen et al presented dilithium rhodizonate as a biomass-derived sustainable cathode material for lithium-ion batteries with a high charge storage capability at a reasonable potential They foresaw that the “consideration of renewable resources in designing electrode materials could potentially enable the realization of green and sustainable batteries within the decade.”[1] Since significant advancements have been made, and several concepts of green and sustainable batteries have been presented. All other classes of material need to be synthesized from petrochemical precursors, or require harsh, unsustainable modifications of biomass-derived chemicals and are, as such, not as sustainable as chemicals that are directly available in regrown biomass or can be synthesized from biomass in benign reactions In this Review, organic battery components may only be considered sustainable if they can be made from biological resources in a sustainable way, and if they can be implemented in cells in a benign process. Other biomass-based constituents of sustainable batteries will be introduced
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