Fruit Could Power Your Phone: The Science of Durian
The Stinkiest Energy Solution You Never Saw Coming
Imagine walking past a garbage dump on a hot summer day—that’s what many people think durian smells like. But what if I told you this same “horrific” fruit could charge your phone faster than any technology we have today? Scientists discovered that durian fruit’s surface is transformable into something called aerogels—a part commonly used inside batteries. The bodies of the fruit batteries are made of aerogels: durian carbon aerogel (DCA) and jackfruit carbon aerogel (JCA). While most of us are holding our noses, researchers are holding the key to revolutionizing how we power our devices. The world’s most polarizing fruit might just save us from our energy crisis, and the science behind it is absolutely mind-blowing.
Why Durian Was Nature’s Secret Battery All Along
The structural precision of natural biomass with their hierarchical pores, developed over millions of years of biological evolution, affords an outstanding resource as a template for the synthesis of carbon-based materials. According to the researchers, “The structural precision of natural biomass with their hierarchical pores, developed over millions of years of biological evolution, affords an outstanding resource as a template for the synthesis of carbon-based materials.” Nature spent millions of years perfecting the durian’s structure without us even realizing it was creating the perfect battery template. Because the absorbent power of powdery charcoal helps supercapacitors store more energy, it only makes sense that carbon-containing biomatter like the flesh of highly porous fruits such as the durian could make a great addition. Think of it like a microscopic sponge city—every tiny pocket designed to hold and release energy with incredible efficiency. The fruit that makes us run away screaming was actually designed by evolution to be the ultimate power source.
The Breakthrough That Changed Everything
“Using durian and jackfruit purchased from a market, we converted the fruits’ waste portions (biomass) into super-capacitors that can be used to store electricity efficiently,” said Associate Professor Vincent Gomes. Dr. Vincent Gomes and his team at the University of Sydney made a discovery that sounds like science fiction but is very real. Using a non-toxic and non-hazardous green engineering method that used heating in water and freeze drying of the fruit’s biomass, the durian and jackfruit were transformed into stable carbon aerogels — an extremely light and porous synthetic material used for a range of applications. What they found wasn’t just impressive—it was revolutionary. They perform much more efficiently than modern-day batteries do. “The durian and jack-fruit super-capacitors perform much better than the materials currently in use and are comparable, if not better, than the expensive and exotic graphene-based materials.” Suddenly, the fruit everyone avoids became more valuable than precious metals.
How Scientists Turn Smelly Fruit Into Power
The transformation process sounds like something from a chemistry lab—and it is. First, the researchers scrubbed small bio samples from the spongy core of each fruit. Next, the samples were rinsed with ionized water several times to clean them. Placed in autoclaves, they were steamed hydrothermally for 10 hours at 180° C. After this intensive treatment, something magical happens. Both durian (DCA) and jackfruit carbon aerogels (JCA) exhibit high specific surface areas, high proportions of mesopores and significant levels of nitrogen doping. The result? From the smelly fruits, Gomes and the rest of the team synthesized a carbon aerogel, which are just like the silica packets that help keep moisture out of food products or packaged electronics in that they’re both highly porous. It’s like taking nature’s most efficient sponge and turning it into a power-storing masterpiece.
Supercapacitors vs Regular Batteries: The Game Changer
“Supercapacitors are like energy reservoirs that dole out energy smoothly. They can quickly store large amounts of energy within a small battery-sized device and then supply energy to charge electronic devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops, within a few seconds,” explains Vincent Gomes. Think about how long it takes to charge your phone normally—usually hours, right? Now imagine plugging it in and watching it go from zero to full in seconds. A capacitor, on the other hand, stores energy by building up a static electricity charge on the surfaces of two metal plates. (You might think of how static electricity builds up on your hair when you rub a balloon against your head, for a sense of how this works.) However, capacitors can’t hold a lot of energy, nor can they hold it for long. That’s where durian comes in to solve this age-old problem. These kinds of supercapacitors—like the ones being created from durian fruit—are great because they have a superior ability to maintain consistent cycling abilities. In energy talk, a cycle is the process of fully charging and draining a battery.
The Numbers That Will Blow Your Mind
Here’s where things get really exciting. The specific capacitance values at a current density of 1 A g−1 using two-electrode configurations for both DCA and JCA are 591 F g−1 and 292 F g−1, respectively. The DCA electrode had significantly greater power density (82.9 W h kg−1) compared to that for the JCA (40 W h kg−1) at 1 A g−1 current density. In plain English, durian absolutely crushes jackfruit in performance, and both demolish traditional materials. It turns out that the durian fruit battery has a bit more power-storage capacity than its jackfruit cousin. These fabricated aerogels were used as electrodes in an asymmetric supercapacitor (LiPF6 as electrolyte, activated carbon as the other electrode) which showed a power density and energy density of 600 W kg−1 and 23 W H kg−1, respectively, at 0.5 A g−1. Moreover, capacitance retention was 80% after 1000 cycles at 10 A g−1. Even after a thousand charge cycles, it still maintains 80% of its original capacity—that’s durability your current phone battery can only dream of.
Why Durian Beats Expensive Materials
“Current supercapacitors are made from activated carbon which are nowhere near as efficient as the ones prepared during this project.” The fruit-derived aerogel the team made was found to be more efficient than current synthetic ones made from activated carbon. But here’s the kicker that makes this discovery so revolutionary. The industry’s standard carbon-graphene mix (used to coat the electrodes in supercapacitors) costs between RM400 (US$96) and RM500 per gram. Meanwhile, durian waste is literally thrown away because of its smell. “Durian waste, as a zero-cost substance that the community wants to get rid of urgently due to its repulsive, nauseous smell, is a sustainable source that can transform the waste into a product to substantially reduce the cost of energy storage through our chemical-free, green synthesis protocol.” We’re talking about replacing materials that cost hundreds of dollars per gram with something people pay to have removed from their neighborhoods. It’s like discovering that garbage is actually gold.
The Secret Life of Durian’s Internal Structure
The bulk material of aerogel obtained from durian consisted of macroscopic channels along with the presence of macropores with diameters of 5–15 μm. Trench-like structures and small pores were observed along the length of the channels, which were 6 and 800 nm apart. Picture a microscopic highway system with perfectly engineered tunnels and bridges. The capacitances of the electrodes were high because of their large surface areas and highly porous morphologies. Some nitrogen-containing functional groups and chlorine were present in the aerogel. The specific capacitance was enhanced in the presence of negatively charged pyridinic nitrogen at the defect sites. The nitrogen content of the durian fruit aerogel was higher than that of the jackfruit aerogel. The durian-derived aerogel demonstrated a good output owing to its large surface area and mesoporous morphology compared to the jackfruit aerogel. It’s as if nature designed the perfect electrical grid at the molecular level, and we just needed to figure out how to tap into it.
Environmental Impact: From Waste to Wonder
Many South Asian cultures value durian fruit, but have no need of the skin; it is simply thrown away. Communities that value durian are already throwing out the skin. This means there is a cost-effective way to provide materials and a non-toxic manner of production, resulting in low-cost access to energy. Every year, millions of tons of durian waste go straight to landfills, creating methane emissions and environmental problems. Now imagine turning that waste stream into clean energy storage. Converting food wastes into value-added products will not only improve the overall economy but also reduce environmental pollution. According to Sydney University, the method is entirely non-toxic. This isn’t just about making better batteries—it’s about creating a circular economy where waste becomes wealth. Converting durian peel waste into functional nanomaterials is also attractive from the various perspectives, offering a strategy that can be potentially applied for many other biomasses.
The Technical Marvel Inside Every Durian
The superior performance of the DCA electrode relative to JCA is ascribed to its higher pyridinic, pyrrolic and graphitic N contents (by 86% total), its high specific surface area (by 21%) and large pore volume (by 56%), which promote enhanced electrical conductivity and pseudo-capacitance with favorable electrolyte penetration. If you’ve ever wondered why durian is so much better than other fruits for this application, the science is fascinating. Pyridine and pyrrole nitrogen increased the specific capacitance of the aerogels, and the conductivity was boosted by graphite nitrogen. Additionally, the conductivity was enhanced by positively charged graphitic nitrogen. Additionally, the positive charge density of carbon was enhanced by the presence of nitrogen, which in turn increased the wettability and polarity of the surface. It’s like durian evolved specifically to conduct electricity better than anything we could engineer in a lab. The same compounds that create its infamous smell are actually the secret to its electrical superpowers.
