The durian, also known as the king of fruit, is probably familiar to some of you. To some, it is an incredibly smelly fruit that has been described as the smell of rotting corpses, while others feast on it with gusto where in certain parts of the world, all-you-can-eat durian buffets are actually a thing.However, it seems that regardless of whether or not you enjoy the thorny fruit, it appears that scientists have discovered another potential use for it: fast-charging our electronic devices and maybe even electric cars. This is due to the way nature has designed thorny fruits like the durian and jackfruit, where researchers have found that by harnessing the biowaste of the fruit, they can turn it into supercapacitors that have the ability to store large amounts of energy.
According to the researchers, “The structural precision of natural biomass with their hierarchical pores, developed over millions of years of biological evolution, affords an outstanding resource as a template for the synthesis of carbon-based materials. Their integrated properties of high surface area, in-plane conductivity and interfacial active sites can facilitate electrochemical reactions, ionic diffusion and high charge carrier density.”
The idea that nature could provide the solution to some of our modern day technological marvels isn’t new. After all, one of the simpler science experiments we were taught in school was how the humble potato could be used as a battery, so this shouldn’t really come as too much of a surprise.
Filed in . Read more about Science. Source: popularmechanics