Biopolimer Peptide Batteries—A New Concept for Environmentally Friendly and Safer Energy Storage

The work shows a new approach to improving the performance of lithium power sources by using polypeptides as an active component of the cathode composition. Specifically, the experimental results of testing prototypes of lithium current sources with cathodes based on polypeptides, which demonstrate the value of the specific discharge capacity at the level of 2000–2700 mAh/g, depending on the content of the organic component, are presented. The use of the intermittent galvanostatic titration mode during the discharge showed an increase in the specific indicators of the current sources in comparison with the continuous discharge at different specific load currents. Based on this, the effect of “relaxation recovery” of the cathode material based on polypeptides was discovered, the essence of which is a significant increase (recovery) of the open-circuit voltage when the load of the lithium current source is disconnected, which leads to an increase of the discharge capacity without external energy influences. The functionalization of the surface of thermally expanded graphite with polypeptide components made it possible to create a cathode material, the use of which in lithium current source models increased the specific discharge capacity to 19,000 mA h/g at a discharge current of 10 mA/h.