Brick-made battery technology

How does a brick battery work?

The brick battery relies on the reddish pigment known as iron oxide, or rust, that gives red bricks their color. The scientists pumped the bricks with several gases that react with iron oxide to produce a network of plastic fibers. These microscopic fibers coat the empty spaces inside the bricks—and conduct electricity.

What is a red brick battery?

Julio D’Arcy is an assistant professor of chemistry at Washington University and one of the researchers on this project. The brick battery relies on the reddish pigment known as iron oxide, or rust, that gives red bricks their color.

Can bricks be used as electrical charge storage devices?

Pumping cheap iron-oxide-rich red bricks with specific vapors that form polymers enables the bricks to become electrical-charge-storage devices. Core-shell architecture of a nanofibrillar PEDOT-coated brick electrode lights up a green LED. Bricks are one of the oldest known building materials, dating back thousands of years.

Can bricks be used as energy storage units?

Core-shell architecture of a nanofibrillar PEDOT-coated brick electrode lights up a green LED. Bricks are one of the oldest known building materials, dating back thousands of years. But researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found a new use for bricks: as energy storage units.

Can red bricks be used as energy storage?

Imagine plugging into your brick house. Red bricks — some of the world’s cheapest and most familiar building materials — can be converted into energy storage units that can be charged to hold electricity, like a battery, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Can a smart brick store energy?

Brick has been used in walls and buildings for thousands of years, but rarely has been found fit for any other use. Now, chemists in Arts & Sciences have developed a method to make or modify “smart bricks” that can store energy until required for powering devices.