Scientists from Korea claim that they have found a way of converting the used cigarette butts into such a material that is capable of storing energy in large amounts. This high performing material can be integrated with computers, electrical vehicles and handheld devices. It is hoped that the material can be used to coat the electrodes of super-capacitors .
'Super-capacitors' are the electrochemical components that can store extremely large amounts of electrical energy. These are the electric storage alternatives to batteries. Scientists from around the world are currently working towards improving the characteristics of super-capacitors such as energy density , power density and cycle stability while reducing the production cost at the same time.
The researchers demonstrated that the cellulose acetate fibers that cigarette filters are mostly composed of could be transformed into a carbon-based material using simple, one step burning technique called Pyrolysis.
As a result of this burning process, the resulting carbon based material contained a number of tiny pores, increasing its performance as a super-capacitve material.
A combination of different pore sizes ensures that the material has high power densities, which is an essential property in a super- capacitor that ensures fast charging and discharging.
It is estimated that nearly 5.6 trillion used cigarettes or 766,571 metric tonnes are deposited in environment worldwide every year.
So overall, this technology is a great news for electric storage and the ashtray fillers.
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