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Sustainable organic batteries for future energy storage

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18 Dec, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

A team of scientists at UNSW Chemistry has developed an organic material that is able to store protons, which is being used to create a rechargeable proton battery in the lab.

By using hydrogen ions (protons) instead of traditional lithium, the batteries hold promise for addressing some of the critical challenges in modern energy storage, including resource scarcity, environmental impact, safety and cost. The team’s latest findings, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, highlight the battery’s ability to store energy quickly, last longer and perform well tunder sub-zero conditions.

The material — tetraamino-benzoquinone — was developed by PhD candidate Sicheng Wu and Professor Chuan Zhao, in collaboration with UNSW Engineering and ANSTO, and has been shown to support rapid proton movement using hydrogen-bond networks.  

“We have developed a novel, high-capacity, small-molecule material for proton storage,” Zhao said. “Using this material, we successfully built an all-organic proton battery that is effective at both room temperature and sub-zero freezing temperatures.”

Back to battery basics

Batteries store chemical energy and convert it to electrical energy through reactions between two electrodes — the anode and cathode. Charge-carrying particles, known as ions, are transferred via the middle component of the battery, known as an electrolyte. 

The most common batteries used in household products are lithium-ion batteries. These batteries, which create an electric charge by transferring lithium ions between the anode and cathode, are the most widespread portable energy storage solutions. 

Lithium-ion batteries power everyday products such as mobile phones, laptops and smart wearables, as well as newer e-mobility products such as electric cars, e-bikes and e-scooters. However, they are very difficult to recycle and require huge amounts of water and energy to produce. 

“Lithium-ion batteries are already becoming a dominant product in energy storage applications, but they have a lot of limitations,” Wu said. 

“Lithium is a finite resource that is not evenly distributed on Earth, so some countries may not have access to low-cost lithium sources. Lithium batteries also have [a] very big challenge regarding fast-charging applications, safety and … low efficiency in cold temperature.”  

Alternatives to lithium-ion batteries

Although we currently rely very heavily on lithium-ion batteries, a growing number of alternatives are emerging. In particular, proton batteries are gaining attention as a sustainable alternative in the energy field for energy storage devices.

Protons have the smallest ionic radius and mass of all elements, which allows them to diffuse quickly. Using protons results in batteries with high energy and power density, and protons are relatively inexpensive, produce zero carbon emissions and are fast charging.  

“There are many benefits to proton batteries,” Wu said. “But the current electrode materials used for proton batteries, some of which are made from organic materials and others from metals, are heavy and still very high cost.” 

While a few organic electrode materials already exist, they also suffer from limited voltage range, and further research is required to make them viable batteries.  

Creating an anode material

Redox potential is a fundamental parameter in electrochemistry. It is related to the flow of electricity, which is important for designing batteries. The range of redox potentials in a battery is important because it affects the battery’s performance. Usually, the redox potentials of cathode materials need to locate in a high range and that of anodes need to locate in a low range to ensure a desirable battery voltage output.

To create their electrode material, the research team started with a small molecule, called tetrachloro-benzoquinone (TCBQ), which includes four chlorine groups. Although TCBQ has been used previously to design electrode materials, the redox potential range of this compound is mediocre — neither low enough to be used as an anode nor high enough to be used as a cathode.  

So, to start, the team set out to modify TCBQ to increase its performance as an anode material.

After multiple rounds of modifications of the compound, the researchers settled on replacing the four chloro groups with four amino groups, making it a tetraamino-benzaquinone (TABQ) molecule. By adding amino groups, the researchers significantly improved the material’s ability to store protons and lower its redox potential range.

“If you just look at the TABQ material that we have designed, it’s not necessarily cheap to produce at the moment,” Zhao said. “But because it’s made of abundant light elements, it will be easy and affordable to eventually scale up.”

Putting the prototype to the test

When the researchers tested the proton battery, the results were promising.

Combined with a TCBQ cathode, the all-organic battery offers a long cycle life (3500 cycles of fully charging and then fully draining the battery), high capacity and good performance in cold conditions. 

“The electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is made of lithium salt, a solvent which is flammable and therefore is a big concern,” Zhao said. “In our case, we have both electrodes made of organic molecules, and in between we have the water solution, making our prototype battery lightweight, safe and affordable.”

Given the low cost, high safety and the fast charging performance of the proton battery designed through this collaboration, it has the potential to be used in a variety of situations, including grid-scale energy storage. As noted by Wu, “At the moment, we don’t have any suitable solutions to grid-scale energy storage, because we can’t use tons of lithium batteries to do that job due to the price and lack of safety.

“To enhance the usage of renewable energies, we have to develop some more efficient energy integration technologies and our proton battery design is a promising trial.”

While the potential applications are vast, the researchers are determined to refine and perfect their proton battery.

“We have designed a very good anode material, and future work will move to the cathode side. We will continue designing new organic materials that have higher redox potential range to increase the battery output voltage,” Wu said.

Image caption: Professor Chuan Zhao holds up a prototype of the proton battery in the lab, made in collaboration with UNSW Engineering and ANSTO. Image: Supplied.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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