Non-Enzymatic biodegradable battery from plant-based microtubules cathode – Monte Carlo simulation and Experimental validation

Abstract

For the first time, electrochemical methods are utilized to study the response of tubulin monomers (extracted from plant source such as Green Peas: Arachis Hypogea) towards charge perturbations in the form of conductivity, conformational changes via self-assembly and adsorption on Au surface (cf. Figure 1). The obtained dimerization and surface adsorption energetics of the tubulins from Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) agree well with the literature value of 6.9 & 14.9 kCal/mol for lateral and longitudinal bond formation energy respectively. In addition to the effects of charge perturbations on change in structure, ionic and electronic conductivity of tubulin with increasing load are investigated and found to be 1.25 Sm− 1 and 2.89 mSm− 1 respectively. The electronic conductivity is 1.93 times higher than the literature value of 1.5 mSm− 1, demonstrating the fact that the microtubules (dimer of tubulins, MTs) from plant source can be used as a semiconductor electrode material in energy conversion and storage applications such as batteries and supercapacitors. Thus, motivated by the Monte Carlo simulation and electrochemical results the MTs extracted from plant source are used as cathode material for energy storage device such as Bio-battery and the Galvanostatic Charge/Discharge studies are carried out in coin cell − 2032 configuration. The configuration of the bio-battery cell is as follows: Al/CB//PP-1M NaCl//MTs/SS; where SS and Al are used as current collectors for cathode and anode respectively, Polypropylene (PP) membrane soaked in 1M NaCl as electrolyte and Carbon Black (CB) is the anode material. Another configuration of the cell would be replacement of CB by biopolymer such as ethyl cellulose anode (Al/EC/PP-1MNaCl/MTs/SS). (cf. Figure 2)