Pencil Graphite, Carbonized Eggshells and Corn (Zea mays) Husk as Components in Power Banks for Mobile Phones

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Power banks nowadays are very helpful to mobile phone users. They allow storage of electrical energy for later purposes. Charging without a wall outlet became possible with this new technology (Power Bank Expert, 2016). Power banks use lithium-ion batteries or Li-ion batteries which are the same batteries used in mobile phones. This new technology may be flawless however, it tends to charge too long to provide a long charging capacity. It is also made up of chemicals which are harmful to the environment. Ergo, with this research, we focused on creating a power bank that can charge fast while still providing good charging capacity and is environment-friendly. We used pencil graphite due to its capability of electrical conduction, carbonized eggshells because of its porous structure, which therefore provides plenty of surface area to hold electrical charge (Savage, 2012; Blair, 2013), and carbonized corn husk because of its high nitrogen content.

METHODS

Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was used. We created seven (7) ratio of pencil graphite, carbonized eggshells and corn husk (1:1:1, 1:5:3, 1:3:5, 5:1:3, 5:3:1, 3:5:1, 3:1:5) which were applied to a paper then triplicated. Those served as the battery of the power bank. The resulting paper batteries were introduced to coconut water which served as the electrolyte of the battery. The voltage outputs of the paper batteries were measured under 10-minute time intervals (for one hour). Multimeter was used to measure the voltage outputs of the different sets of paper batteries while a mobile phone was used to test if the powerbank was capable of charging.

RESULTS

The paper battery with the ratio of 3:1:5 showed the best voltage output among the other ratio. However, we used the 3:5:1 ratio because aside from having a high voltage output (3rd among the others), it also showed longer electrical energy storage. The different ratio of paper battery exhibited significant relationships and differences with their voltage outputs.

DISCUSSIONS

The results showed that the pencil graphite, carbonized eggshells and corn husk can be used as components in power banks for mobile phones. Different ratio of the materials offered different strengths and weaknesses which allowed room for improvements of the study.