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Scientists 3D-Print Concrete That Can Store Electricity and Still Hold Up a Building
Concrete normally has one job: keeping buildings from tumbling down. But researchers in China have made a version that can do something decidedly less concrete-like. It can store electricity. Using a 3D printer, the team embedded a supercapacitor directly into a cement-based structure while preserving enough strength for the material to bear substantial loads. Three of the small devices, connected together, produced enough electricity to illuminate an array of LEDs. The prototype is nowhere near ready to replace the energy storage batteries in some buildings. But what if a building’s walls, floors and foundations could act not only as structure but also as part of a building’s energy system? This could be the ultimate promise. F or now, we’re shown a glimpse. The device, described in a new study published in ACS Nano, was developed by Haiping Wu and Jing Zhong of the Harbin Institute of Technology and Wencai Ren of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their key innovation is arranging the energy-storing components in the cement so electricity can move through them more efficiently. Supercapacitors and batteries overlap in some places, but stray in others. They generally cannot hold nearly as much energy, but they can charge and discharge...
