Energy Storing Bricks Technology Model.
                     Energy Storing 
Bricks Technology 
Model
Introduction
• New research conducted by a group of scientists from Washington 
University in St. Louis, on common red bricks, has revealed the potential of 
this inexpensive building material to store energy.
Source: mercomindia.com
How it works?
• Bricks have a porous structure that enables the storing process. Those 
pores are filled with an acid vapor which acts as a dissolved for the iron 
oxide (or rust) from which bricks are composed.
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
How it works cont.
• A gas is transferred through the cavities of bricks which are filled with a 
sulfur-based material that reacts with iron. As a result, a conductive plastic, 
polymer PEDOT, surrounds the bricks' porous.
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
How it stores electricity?
• In this work, a coating of the conducting polymer PEDOT is developed, which is 
comprised of nanofibers that penetrate the inner porous network of a brick; a polymer 
coating remains trapped in a brick and serves as an ion sponge that stores and 
conducts electricity.
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
Renewable energy
• According to the scientific team, the proposed method could generate substantial 
amounts of renewable energy. 
• Researchers estimated that 50 capacitor bricks would take 13 minutes to charge and 
could provide enough energy to power the emergency lighting of a building for at 
least 50 minutes.
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
Waste material turned into a 
useful product
• Researchers emphasize the fact that iron oxide, a waste material has been turned 
into a useful product that can be utilized in the process of generating renewable 
energy. 
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
Provide emergency lighting 
• The research team claims that a brick wall supercapacitor can be charged several 
times within an hour. 
• According to the team, when 50 bricks are connected with solar panels, it can provide 
emergency lighting for five hours.
Source: mercomindia.com
Other Research
• Researchers at IBM Research have also announced a new battery that could help 
eliminate the use of heavy metals in battery production, and this could lead to a 
paradigm shift in the long-term sustainability of many elements in our energy 
ecosystem.
Source: mercomindia.com
Future Goal
• The team's future goals are to increase the capacity of the energy storage by, at 
least, 10 times and decrease the cost and time of producing the polymer-coated 
bricks.
Source: www.thecivilengineer.org
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