Title:Collagen and Carbon-Ferrous Nanoparticles Used as a Green Energy Composite Material for Energy Storage Devices
VOLUME: 14 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):Inbasekaran Sundaramurthy, Gurunathan Thiyagarajan, Ramesh Chandra Panda* and Samickannku Sankar
Affiliation:Instrumentation Engineering, Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, Chemical Engineering Department, Sardar Patel Road, CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai-60020, Instrumentation Department, Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai
Keywords:Bioenergy, green energy, material composites, energy storage devices, collagen, carbonferrous
nanoparticle.
Abstract:Background: Chrome shavings, a bioactive material, are generated from tannery as
waste material. These chrome shavings can be used for the preparation of many value-added products.
Objective: One such attempt is made to use these chrome shaving wastes as a composite biobattery
to produce DC voltage, an alternative green energy source and cleaner technology.
Methods: Chrome shavings were hydrolyzed to make collagen paste and mixed with the ferrous
nanoparticles of Moringa oleifera leaves and carbon nanoparticles of onion peels to form electrolyte
paste as the base. Then, the electrolyte base was added to the aluminum paste and conducting
gel, and mixed well to form a composite material for bio-battery.
Results: The composite material of bio-battery has been characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy
(SEM), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry
(DSC) and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). Series and parallel circuit testing were done using
copper and zinc electrodes or carbon and zinc electrodes as the battery terminals in the electrolyte paste.
The surface area of these electrodes needed standardization from bench to pilot scale. The power generated,
for an AA battery size, using a single bio-battery cell produced a DC voltage of 1.5 V; current of
900 mA. Circuit testing on 1 ml of 80 well-cells connected in series produced DC output of 18 V and
1100 mA, whereas 48 V and 1500 mA were obtained from a series-parallel connection.
Conclusion: The glass transition temperature (Tg) of electrolyte of the bio-battery at 53°C indicated
that at this temperature, all the substances present in the bio-battery were well spread and consistently
contributed to the electrolyte activity where Fe-C-nano-particles were able to form strong
chemical bonds on the flanking hydroxyl group sites of the collagen leading to reduced mobility
of polymers and increased Tg. The results instigate promising trends for commercial exploitation
of this composite for bio-battery production.