If the world one day sees a boom in electric cars and renewable energy, people will need more efficient batteries than are currently available. Now, researchers say a glow-in-the-dark dye used to track chemicals in cells could offer a solution.
The chemical is boron-dipyrromethene, otherwise known as BODIPY, and it consists of a set of carbon rings linked to a boron atom and two fluorine atoms. BODIPY glows under "black" light. Chemistry researchers use it as a marker to see reactions or identify where biological systems take up other substances, such as cadmium.
In the new study, a team of chemists at SUNY Buffalo tested BODIPY's power-generating abilities with a special type of Battery called a reduction-oxidation battery (or redox). The researchers found that small amounts of the dye added to a solution of acetonitrile could make a battery that can be charged and recharged 100 times without losing its ability to store energy efficiently.
In an ordinary rechargeable battery, like the lithium-ion ones used in computers and phones, the changes in the battery chemistry are in a solid state, and it's harder for electrical charges to flow. Lithium-ion batteries use lithium as charge carrier: lithium gives up electrons and moves from the negative to positive electrode.
Usually a battery has carbon and lithium oxide in it, and both are solids (hence the term "solid state"), so the substance of the battery has to be porous enough for the lithium ions to get through easily. Between the lithium and carbon layer is a liquid electrolyte to carry the charges (it typically isn't water, and the chemical varies among different manufacturers). The problem is that after repeated charge cycles, the electrodes inside the battery can degrade, because they are reacting with the other chemicals in the battery.
