While it’s no friend to allergy sufferers, pollen is proving its worth in the laboratory, specifically in the area of battery research. Purdue University scientists, investigating ways to build a better battery, have discovered that the unique microstructure of pollen grains may act as an efficient energy storage unit, according to an article from Yahoo! News.
The scientists found that if they could turn pollen into a carbon anode with a more beneficial microstructure than graphite, this might enable them to create a battery with the ability to store more energy. Researchers took pollen from honeybees and cattails and superheated it to produce small pieces of carbon, which they then heated again to create more empty pockets in the pollen structure. These pockets, according to the article, increase the ability to store energy. The Purdue team is now looking to create an improved cathode to go along with their new anode.
Read the entire article here.
