{"id":1757,"date":"2014-08-13T08:49:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T08:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2022-12-31T20:46:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T12:46:37","slug":"hemp-fibres-better-than-graphene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/hemp-fibres-better-than-graphene\/","title":{"rendered":"Hemp fibres ‘better than graphene’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The waste fibres from hemp crops can be transformed into high-performance energy storage devices, scientists say.<\/h2>\n

They “cooked” cannabis bark into carbon nanosheets and built supercapacitors “on a par with or better than graphene” – the industry gold standard.<\/p>\n

Electric cars and power tools could harness this hemp technology, the US researchers say.<\/p>\n

They presented their work at the American Chemical Society meeting<\/span><\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

“People ask me: why hemp? I say, why not?” said Dr David Mitlin of Clarkson University, New York, who describes his device in the journal ACS Nano<\/span>.<\/a><\/p>\n

“We’re making graphene-like materials for a thousandth of the price – and we’re doing it with waste.<\/p>\n

“The hemp we use is perfectly legal to grow. It has no THC in it at all – so there’s no overlap with any recreational activities.”<\/p>\n

Secret sauce<\/h2>\n

In countries including China, Canada and the UK, hemp can be grown industrially for clothing and building materials.<\/p>\n

But the leftover bast fibre – the inner bark – typically ends up as landfill.<\/p>\n

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Image <\/span>SPL<\/span> <\/span><\/figure>\n

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Dr Mitlin’s team took these fibres and recycled them into supercapacitors – energy storage devices which are transforming the way electronics are powered.<\/p>\n