Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Wayne State University , 5050 Anthony Wayne Drive, Detroit, Michigan, 48202, United States.
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2015 Oct 20;49(20):12543-50. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5b03882. Epub 2015 Sep 30.
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are frequently reported around the globe. HABs are typically caused by the so-called blue-green algae in eutrophic waters. These fast-growing HABs could be a good source for biomass. Unlike terrestrial plants, they need no land or soil. If HABs could be harvested on a large scale, it could not only possible to mitigate the issue of HABs but also provide a source of biomass. Herein, we demonstrate a facile procedure for converting the HABs into a promising high-performance negative-electrode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The carbon material derived from blue-green algae demonstrated promising electrochemical performance in reversible sodium storage. The algae used in this work was collected directly from Lake Erie during the algal blooms that affected 500 000 residents in Toledo in 2014. The carbon, derived from the freshly collected HABs by calcination in argon without any additional purification process, delivered a highly stable reversible specific capacity (∼230 mAh/g at a testing current of 20 mA/g) with nearly 100% Columbic efficiency in sodium storage. Impressive rate performance was achieved with a capacity of ∼135 mAh/g even after the testing current was increased fivefold. This proof of concept provides a promising route for mitigating the issue of HABs as "trash" and for generating high-capacity, low-cost electrodes for SIBs as "treasure".
有害藻华（HAB）在全球范围内频繁发生。HAB 通常是由富营养化水中所谓的蓝绿藻引起的。这些快速生长的 HAB 可能是生物质的良好来源。与陆生植物不同，它们不需要土地或土壤。如果能够大规模收获 HAB，不仅可以缓解 HAB 问题，还可以提供生物质来源。在此，我们展示了一种将 HAB 转化为用于钠离子电池（SIB）的有前途的高性能负极材料的简便方法。从蓝绿藻中得到的碳材料在可逆的钠离子储存中表现出了有前景的电化学性能。本工作中使用的藻类是在 2014 年影响托莱多 50 万居民的藻华期间直接从伊利湖收集的。在氩气中煅烧，无需任何额外的纯化过程，即可从新鲜收集的 HAB 中得到碳，在钠储存中具有高稳定的可逆比容量（在 20 mA/g 的测试电流下约为 230 mAh/g），库仑效率接近 100%。在测试电流增加五倍后，仍可实现令人印象深刻的倍率性能，容量约为 135 mAh/g。该概念验证为缓解 HAB 作为“垃圾”的问题以及为 SIB 生成高容量、低成本电极提供了一条有前景的途径。
