KL Faculty Research Explores Biodegradable Waste for Sustainable Energy Solutions

Hyderabad: KL Deemed to be University announced that one of its faculty members has been successfully turning waste into valuable resources. Dr. P. S. Srinivasa Babu, who heads the Center for Flexible Electronics in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, has been proactively exploring various research angles to utilize biodegradable waste material into sustainable solutions. His recent achievement, in collaboration with a research team, is co-authoring a research paper titled "Strategic Way of Synthesizing Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Nano-Onions Using Waste Chicken Fat Oil for Energy Storage Devices," published in the prestigious ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces journal.

The research focuses on creating a special type of carbon material known as carbon nano-onions (CNOs) using waste chicken fat oil. The team developed a simple and cost-effective method called oil-wick flame pyrolysis to convert the chicken fat oil into useful carbon materials. This approach not only reduces costs but also minimizes environmental impact by utilizing biowaste. The team, comprising Dr. Babu and faculty from Yeungnam University, Republic of Korea, worked on this research to explore the potential of using biowaste-derived materials for efficient and sustainable energy storage solutions.

Dr. G. PardhaSaradhiVarma, Vice-Chancellor of KL Deemed to be University, remarked, "We encourage our faculty to innovate and promote sustainable, globally impactful research. This particular study is significant as it transforms waste into valuable resources. Our faculty's dedication to solving real-life problems not only advances scientific boundaries but also contributes to a greener future. It's fascinating how this team has converted everyday waste into high-performance energy storage materials, setting new standards for environmental responsibility and scientific excellence. We actively promote such collaborative efforts, ensuring our faculty lead in sustainability and innovation, and inspiring future generations to tackle global challenges with creativity and determination."

The research shows that synthesized CNOs are highly efficient for energy storage because they allow ions and electrons to move through them easily. To enhance their performance further, the team added small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen, a process known as doping. This doping improves the material's conductivity and its ability to hold electrical charge.

The doped CNOs showed significant improvement in their energy storage capability, achieving a specific capacitance of 261 F/g, which is much higher than the undoped CNOs. The team also created a supercapacitor using these enhanced CNOs, which demonstrated excellent energy and power performance and remained stable even after many charge-discharge cycles.

The University is proud of Dr. P. S. Srinivasa Babu's and team for contribution for their outstanding achievement and their commitment to advancing sustainable energy technologies. Under the Center for Flexible Electronics in the Department of ECE at KL Deemed to be University, faculty members, in collaboration with various teams, have been working on innovative biodegradable materials derived from agricultural crop waste. This includes leftover rice husk from paddy fields, rotten marigold flowers from temples, banana leaves, stems, and peduncles from fields, mint and coriander leaves, and vegetable waste such as rotten tomatoes and eggplants.

These teams are developing various electronic devices such as flexible supercapacitors and batteries, flexible antennas, sensors for various biological applications, and nanogenerators. To date, these teams have filed three patents. This KL department also has research collaborations with Imperial College London, Kyung Hee University in South Korea, King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, the University of Surrey in the UK, and Ming Chi University of Technology in Taiwan.