From allergens to anodes: pollen derived battery electrodes

February 5, 2016
This scanning electron microscope image shows bee pollen studied for potential use as electrodes
for lithium-ion batteries. Color was added to the original black-and-white image. (Purdue University
image/ Jialiang Tang, Kay J. Hagen)
Download Photo
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Pollens, the bane of allergy sufferers, could represent a boon for battery
makers: Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in lithium-ion batteries.
"Our findings have demonstrated that renewable pollens could produce carbon architectures for
anode applications in energy storage devices," said Vilas Pol, an associate professor in the School of
Chemical Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering at Purdue University.
Batteries have two electrodes, called an anode and a cathode. The anodes in most of today's lithiumion batteries are made of graphite. Lithium ions are contained in a liquid called an electrolyte, and
these ions are stored in the anode during recharging.
The researchers tested bee pollen- and cattail pollen-derived carbons as anodes.
"Both are abundantly available," said Pol, who worked with doctoral student Jialiang Tang. "The
bottom line here is we want to learn something from nature that could be useful in creating better
batteries with renewable feedstock."
Research findings are detailed in a paper that appeared Friday (Feb. 5) in Nature's Scientific
Reports.
Whereas bee pollen is a mixture of different pollen types collected by honeybees, the cattail pollens
all have the same shape.
"I started looking into pollens when my mom told me she had developed pollen allergy symptoms
about two years ago," Tang said. "I was fascinated by the beauty and diversity of pollen
microstructures. But the idea of using them as battery anodes did not really kick in until I started
working on battery research and learned more about carbonization of biomass."
The researchers processed the pollen under high temperatures in a chamber containing argon gas

using a procedure called pyrolysis, yielding pure carbon in the original shape of the pollen particles.
They were further processed, or "activated," by heating at lower temperature about 300 degrees
Celsius - in the presence of oxygen, forming pores in the carbon structures to increase their energystorage capacity.
The research showed the pollen anodes could be charged at various rates. While charging for 10
hours resulted in a full charge, charging them for only one hour resulted in more than half of a full
charge, Pol said.
"The theoretical capacity of graphite is 372 milliamp hours per gram, and we achieved 200 milliamp
hours after one hour of charging," he said.
The researchers tested the carbon at 25 degrees Celsius and 50 degrees Celsius to simulate a range
of climates.
"This is because the weather-based degradation of batteries is totally different in New Mexico
compared to Indiana," Pol said.
Findings showed the cattail pollens performed better than bee pollen.
The work is ongoing. Whereas the current work studied the pollen in only anodes, future research
will include work to study them in a full-cell battery with a commercial cathode.
"We are just introducing the fascinating concept here," Pol said. "Further work is needed to
determine how practical it might be."

Electron microscopy studies were performed at the Birck Nanotechnology Center in Purdue's
Discovery Park.
The work was supported by Purdue's School of Chemical Engineering. The electron microscopy
studies at Birck were funded by a Kirk exploratory research grant and were conducted by doctoral
students Arthur D. Dysart and Vinodkumar Etacheri. An XPS measurement was conducted by Dmitry
Zemlyanov at Birck. The colored scanning electron microscope image was created by
Communications Specialist Kay J. Hagenand graduate student Jialiang Tang from the School of
Chemical Engineering.Other support came from the Hoosier Heavy Hybrid Center of Excellence
(H3CoE) fellowship, funded by U.S. Department of Energy.
Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Source: Vilas G. Pol, 765-494-0044, vpol@purdue.edu
Note to Journalists: The research paper is available from Emil Venere, 765-494-4709,
venere@purdue.edu
ABSTRACT
From Allergens to Battery Anodes: Nature-Inspired, Pollen Derived Carbon Architectures for Roomand Elevated-Temperature Li-ion Storage

Jialiang Tang & Vilas G. Pol *

School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University

*E-mail: vpol@purdue.edu
The conversion of allergic pollen grains into carbon microstructures was carried out through a
facile, one-step, solid-state pyrolysis process in an inert atmosphere. The as-prepared carbonaceous
particles were further air activated at 300 C and then evaluated as lithium ion battery anodes at
room (25 C) and elevated (50 C) temperatures. The distinct morphologies of bee pollens and cattail
pollens are resembled on the final architecture of produced carbons. Scanning Electron Microscopy
images shows that activated bee pollen carbon (ABP) is comprised of spiky, brain-like, and tiny
spheres; while activated cattail pollen carbon (ACP) resembles deflated spheres. Structural analysis
through X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy confirmed their amorphous nature. X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of ABP and ACP confirmed that both samples contain high
levels of oxygen and small amount of nitrogen contents. At C/10 rate, ACP electrode delivered high
specific lithium storage reversible capacities (590 mAh/g at 50 C and 382 mAh/g at 25 C) and also
exhibited excellent high rate capabilities. Through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy studies,
improved performance of ACP is attributed to its lower charge transfer resistance than ABP. Current
studies demonstrate that morphologically distinct renewable pollens could produce carbon
architectures for anode applications in energy storage devices.