A battery material derived from wood has the potential to replace liquid electrolytes in next-generation batteries, according to new research.

Scientists from Brown University and the University of Maryland said that batteries built using this material could deliver a power boost whilst operating more safely.

The initial research focuses on the replacement of liquids commonly used in today’s lithium-ion batteries with solid materials.

In the research paper published in Nature, researchers demonstrated a solid ion conductor that combines copper with cellulose nanofibrils — polymer tubes derived from wood.

Scientists said that the new, paper-thin, wood-derived material has an ion conductivity that is “10 to 100 times better” than other polymer ion conductors.

The technology has the potential to be used as either a solid battery electrolyte or as an ion-conducting binder for the cathode of an all-solid-state battery.

Commenting on the research, Liangbing Hu, a professor in Maryland Uni’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, said: “By incorporating copper with one-dimensional cellulose nanofibrils, we demonstrated that the normally ion-insulating cellulose offers a speedier lithium-ion transport within the polymer chains.

“In fact, we found this ion conductor achieved a record high ionic conductivity among all solid polymer electrolytes.”

Lithium-ion batteries, such as those found in phones, computers, and EVs, currently use volatile liquids as electrolytes. Although effective, liquid electrolytes are toxic and potentially dangerous, as well as being bad for the environment.

Scientists said that the new wood-based material from their study, however, is thin and flexible like a sheet of paper, with ion conductivity “on par with ceramics,” another already widely used material.

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Yue Qi, a professor at Brown’s School of Engineering, commented: “The lithium ions move in this organic solid electrolyte via mechanisms that we typically found in inorganic ceramics, enabling the record high ion conductivity.

“Using materials nature provides will reduce the overall impact of battery manufacture to our environment.”

The researchers said that they are “hopeful” that the new material could be a “step toward bringing solid state battery technology to the mass market”.

Previous US battery research from September has created a platform that lets developers create and run electronic devices without batteries for “an infinite lifetime”.

The tech, called BFree, enables battery-free electronic devices to run using harvested energy.

BFree includes energy-harvesting hardware and a power-failure-resistant version of programming language, Python.

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