A research paper on sustainable electronics, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, reveals that chitin - a natural resource-rich in nitrogen - will play an important role in the manufacture of advanced nanocarbon in the future. This would imply that it would be feasible to make PC components from crab shells.
Chitin, derived from the shells of crabs (among other things), is a biopolymer that has been shown during this research to be more efficient at making nanocarbon materials than traditional methods. This is due to its molecular structure, which creates its own source of the natural defects necessary to make it usable. That means one less step in the production process and less demand for non-renewable resources.
"This paper presents the fabrication of defective and porous three-dimensional nanocarbons by direct pyrolysis of crab shell derived chitin nanofiber paper. Pyrolyzed chitin nanofiber paper has a tunable electrical resistivity (1013 to 10-2 Ω cm ), 3D porous structures with layered nanofiber networks and defective carbon molecular structures doped with nitrogen.
The role of pyrolyzed chitin nanofiber shows good performance as a photosensor and energy storage supercapacitor electrode, demonstrating that tailored defective carbon and 3D porous structures play a key role in dramatically improving performance. This pioneering approach can be used to manufacture chitin nanofiber-derived nanocarbons with excellent multiple functions for future sustainable electronics."
Furthermore, these chitin nanofiber papers have shown great promise for use in photosensors as well as efficient supercapacitor electrodes. Chitin photosensors not only showed lower light resistance, but chitin electrodes also showed great promise. Superconducting electrodes essentially store electric charge in an electric field; When using chitin nanocarbon, its "specific capacitance" turned out to be greater than that of many alternative non-sustainable nanocarbon materials today.
This opens the door for future 3D porous nanostructures made from crab chitin to be used in the design of efficient charging networks, photosensors, as well as electrolytes and reagents.
"We are excited about our simple pyrolysis treatment," which has demonstrated the usefulness of a "resource that is generally considered a waste product [and] demonstrates the viability of sustainable electronics," said Hirotaka Koga, co-author of the research paper.
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