When we gaze up at a tree full of lush, green leaves we are actually looking at hundreds of tiny batteries. These tiny appendages save energy for the tree to use at a later time, a natural process scientists have harnessed to create literal leaf batteries as eco-friendly alternatives to the lithium powerhouses of today.
Researchers at the University of Maryland were curious about finding the perfect, inexpensive vehicle to serve as their batteries’ negative terminal, or anode, and it turns out they only needed to look as far as the surrounding campus grounds. “Leaves are so abundant. All we had to do was pick one up off the ground here on campus,” said Beijing National Center for Nanoscience and Technology faculty member and study author Hongbian Li.
Scientists make eco-friendly batteries out of leaves [Inhabitat]