The color that makes blue jeans iconic might also help power tomorrow’s electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
Researchers at Concordia University have discovered that indigo—the same natural dye used in denim for hundreds of years—could play an important role in making safer and greener batteries.
Their work, published in Nature Communications, shows that indigo can help solid-state batteries work better.
Solid-state batteries are an exciting next step in clean energy because they use solid materials instead of flammable liquids to move lithium ions.
This makes them safer and capable of storing more energy.
However, one of the biggest challenges is that organic materials, which are affordable and environmentally friendly, usually react too much with the solid parts of the battery.
This reaction can cause the battery to become unstable, so most scientists try to prevent it.
But the Concordia team found something surprising. Instead of causing problems, indigo actually helps two important reactions inside the battery happen at the same time.
Indigo can store and release lithium on its own, and it also lightly activates the solid electrolyte so that it can store energy too. When these two materials work together, the battery can hold much more energy than either material could manage alone.
Even more impressively, the battery performs smoothly at room temperature and continues to work well in cold weather, down to minus ten degrees Celsius. This level of performance is extremely rare for solid-state batteries that rely on organic ingredients.
According to Xia Li, the study’s lead author, seeing a natural molecule like indigo guide the battery’s chemistry in such a stable way was exciting.
It shows that greener and more widely available materials could help shape the future of clean-energy technology. First author Qihang Yu adds that their results show one of the best performances ever reported for this type of battery.
Still, more work is needed before this technology can be used in real products. The next step is to fine-tune the reactions happening inside the battery so it can store much more energy in a small space without losing stability.
If researchers can achieve that, organic solid-state batteries could become a practical, sustainable option for electric vehicles and renewable-energy storage.
In other words, the dye that colors our jeans may soon help power a greener world.
