In addition to many negative effects, the pandemic also caused an increase in environmental pollution. Disposing of masks, gloves and disposable health equipment is a great loss. Scientists say they have found a new way to bring used masks back to life. Moreover, this path may also contribute to solving a larger problem: climate change.
Professor Anvar Zakhidov of Russia’s National University of Science and Technology and researchers at three Mexican institutions disinfected waste surgical masks and dipped them in graphene ink. Then they turned the masks into electrodes by heat treatment, the mask material that was processed in a different way was also used as separation material and supercapacitors were produced.
The scientists published their work in the journal Energy Storage. Supercapacitors work differently than conventional batteries, but they do the same job, storing electricity when needed. They could be used in household appliances like clocks or lamps, Zakhidov says, and by scaling up they could help deliver solar power and provide backup wind power, and eventually replace fossil fuels.
The idea of turning face masks into energy storage devices is still new, but many porous materials have already been tested for this purpose, including waste car tires and coconut shells. While these often work, they often require high-temperature machining and are not efficient.
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