Battery Made from Natural Materials Could Replace Conventional Lithium-Ion Batteries
By Lesley Henton, Texas A&M University – Edited by Lisa Lock, Reviewed by Robert Egan
What if the next battery you buy was made from the same kinds of ingredients found in your body? That's the idea behind a breakthrough battery material made from natural, biodegradable components — so natural it could even be consumed as food.
A research team at Texas A&M University, including Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Dr. Karen Wooley and Professor of Chemical Engineering Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, has developed a biodegradable battery using natural polymers. Their findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wooley’s group has spent over 15 years focusing on natural products for sustainable and degradable plastics. Lutkenhaus, associate dean for research in the College of Engineering, has been using organic materials to design better batteries. Their collaboration combined Wooley’s naturally sourced polymers with Lutkenhaus’ battery expertise.
“When Dr. Wooley’s lab began developing these naturally sourced polymers, it opened the door to something entirely new—a battery that could perform well and also disappear safely when it's no longer needed,” Lutkenhaus said.
A Battery Made from Vitamin B2 and Amino Acids
The new battery material is made from riboflavin (vitamin B2) and L-glutamic acid, an amino acid used by the body to build proteins.
Dr. Shih-Guo Li, a recent Ph.D. graduate, developed synthetic methods to link these molecular building blocks into polypeptides. The result is a redox-active material — capable of gaining and losing electrons to store and release energy.
Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that rely on metals and petrochemicals, this new material is fully renewable and biodegradable. It breaks down safely when exposed to water or enzymes, potentially reducing battery waste.
Safer for the Environment — and Cells
In lab tests, the material performed well as an anode (electron-storing component) and proved non-toxic to fibroblast cells — suggesting potential for wearable or implantable devices.
“We were excited to see that the electrochemical behavior was on par with synthetic non-sustainable polymeric materials,” Lutkenhaus said. “It shows that you don’t have to sacrifice performance to gain sustainability.”
Circular Economy Approach
The team is taking a “design with the end in mind” approach — building batteries that can be reused, recycled, or safely returned to nature.
“Most extreme in this case, the batteries could even become edible to provide a different kind of ‘energy’ supply,” Wooley noted.
Currently, the chemical process is too expensive for mass production. The researchers estimate 5–10 years before commercialization.
