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Researchers make a supercapacitor from water, cement, and carbon black


Concrete is perhaps the most commonly used building material in the world. With a bit of tweaking, it could help to power our homes too.

He and his colleagues at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way of creating an energy storage device known as a supercapacitor from three basic, cheap materials – water, cement and a soot-like substance called carbon black. Cement production is responsible for 5-8% of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity globallyStefaniuk and his colleagues at MIT initially proved the concept by creating cent-sized 1V supercapacitors from the material before connecting together in series to power a 3V LED. This means that when carbon black is combined with cement powder and water, it makes for a kind of concrete that is full of networks of conductive material, taking a form that resembles ever-branching, tiny roots.

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