Biomimetic robots run off of proton sources (as humans do, as opposes to batteries based off of electrons) -- New power sources (weight and cost competitive versus Lithium-Ion batteries) use protons

[Swudu Susuwu]

Biological humans have lungs which use atmospheric gas to "fire"/"rust" our blood cells for synthases, which uses protons and allows human moves.
This post allows all uses.

https://futurism.com/proton-battery "What's A Proton Battery? Three Things You Need To Know."

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The planet's supply of lithium is concentrated in just a few countries, and the other rare earth metals that go into lithium batteries are an increasingly scarce, expensive resource. In contrast, the proton battery has an electrode made of carbon, one of the most abundant materials on our planet, and is charged by splitting water molecules.

“The advantage is we’re going to be storing protons in a carbon-based material, which is abundant, and we are getting protons from water which is readily available," said the project's lead researcher, John Andrews, to The Guardian.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S240582972300291X "Proton batteries shape the next energy storage"

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Proton battery consists of electrolyte and corresponding proton storage host material (cathode/anode). Acidic electrolytes are usually considered as proton donors, such as H2SO4, HCl, and H3PO4, etc. It is worth noting that protons are often ignored in mild electrolytes. Multivalent ions such as Al3+ and Zn2+ will react with solvent, that is, H2O, to generate protons. In addition, for proton storage host materials, at least one of the cathode and anode has proton storage sites, so that proton storage can be realized. As a matter of fact, the development of proton batteries can be traced back to lead-acid batteries, and proton storage is realized through chemical conversion [12]. Then, nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery forms new compounds through redox reaction between host materials and protons. In recent years, with the further in-depth study of proton batteries, it is also an ideal choice to construct proton batteries by utilizing the special ability of hydrogen storage alloys and the high stability of hydrogen gas electrodes [13], which greatly expands the research field of proton batteries and the application prospect of large-scale battery energy storage. In short, proton battery works via the reversible insertion and deinsertion of protons in the host material to realize discharging and charging. Very recently, some excellent review papers on the development of energy storage materials, electrolytes, and the design and construction of their applications in proton batteries have been published [14,15].

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405829722005220 "Accessing the proton storage in neutral buffer electrolytes using an electrodeposited molybdenum phosphate"
 

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    •Introducing PO43− in molybdenum oxide structure enhances the electron/ion conductivity.
    •Neutral buffer electrolytes possess fast and sufficient H+ supplement for H+ storage.
    •The MP electrode experiences pure H+ storage in neutral buffer electrolytes.
    •The MP electrode exhibits a high capacity of 125.6 mAh g−1 with a high mass of 15.6 mg cm−2.

Abstract

Proton as charge carrier provides unique merits over metal cations in aqueous batteries. Yet, aqueous proton batteries (APBs) usually use strongly acidic electrolytes, which may cause hydrogen evolution and corrosion issues. Herein, we fabricate a molybdenum phosphate (MP) electrode that experiences pure proton storage in neutral buffer electrolytes for the first time, breaking the limit of acidic electrolytes for APBs. The aqueous neutral buffer electrolytes possess fast proton transport network and proton-donor effect, affording fast and sufficient supplement of H+ for the MP electrode. Benefiting from the mixed valence of Mo and enhanced surface electronegativity upon PO43− introduction, the MP electrode exhibited superior discharge capacities to its oxide counterpart (MoOx). The MP electrode exhibits good electrochemical performances, such as a high specific capacity of 125.6 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 (mass loading: 15.6 mg cm−2), which is just slightly lower than that (147 mAh g−1) tested in 1 M HCl electrolyte, a low cutoff potential of −1 V vs. SCE, and long cycle life with 87.8% capacity retention after 2500 charge-discharge cycles at 1.0 A g−1. Our findings provide new opportunities for high-performance neutral proton batteries.

https://www.azorobotics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=361 "The Best Sources of Renewable Energy to Power Humanoid Robots"
 

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Different ‘fuels’ (sugar, fruit, and dead flies) were trialed in the microbial fuel cell system. Their efficiency of conversion to electricity as compared to the maximum available energy calculated from bomb calorimetry trials.

In endurance tests, EcoBot-II was able to run for 12 days while carrying out phototaxis, temperature sensing, and radio transmission of sensed data approximately every 14 minutes.

It could be possible that the most efficient renewable fuel for a humanoid robot is maybe not too dissimilar to the organisms that fuel humans.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sstr.202000113 "The Renaissance of Proton Batteries"

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Proton, as a charge carrier, is most attractive due to its size and the associated advantages. Recently, reversible proton insertion in electrodes has emerged in electrochemical energy storage. Unlike the conventional understanding on pseudocapacitive proton storage, more focus is allocated to the topotactic structural changes. To date, different genres of electrode materials have been explored for proton storage. Proton batteries do not compete with nonaqueous batteries in energy density; the salient advantage of proton storage is its rate capability, which is associated with its tiny size and its nature of forming hydrogen bonding. The recent progress on Grotthuss proton storage is the high rate performance. Proton-conducting electrolytes is another area of the future development of proton batteries.

https://techxplore.com/news/2018-03-power-proton-battery-breakthrough.html "All power to the proton: Researchers make battery breakthrough"

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"Carbon, which is the primary resource used in our proton battery, is abundant and cheap compared to both metal hydrogen-storage alloys, and the lithium needed for rechargeable lithium ion batteries."

During charging, the carbon in the electrode bonds with protons generated by splitting water with the help of electrons from the power supply. The protons are released again and pass back through the reversible fuel cell to form water with oxygen from air to generate power. Unlike fossil fuels, the carbon does not burn or cause emissions in the process.
Professor John Andrews (centre) with the RMIT team that conducted the latest proton battery experiments: Dr Shahin Heidari (left) and Saeed Seif Mohammadi (PhD researcher, right). Not pictured: Dr Amandeep Singh Oberoi (now at Thapar University Patiala, India). Credit: RMIT University

The researchers' experiments showed that their small proton battery, with an active inside surface area of only 5.5 square centimetres, was already able to store as much energy per unit mass as commercially-available lithium ion batteries. This was before the battery had been optimised.

https://theconversation.com/how-protons-can-power-our-future-energy-needs-93124 " How protons can power our future energy needs"

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With large electricity grids, microgrids, industrial installations and electric vehicles all running on renewables, we are likely to need a storage capacity of over 10% of annual electricity consumption – that is, more than 2,000 terawatt-hours of storage capacity worldwide as of 2014.

To put that in context, Australia’s planned Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage scheme would have a capacity of just 350 gigawatt-hours, or roughly 0.2% of Australia’s current electricity consumption.
...
Our new research suggests that “proton batteries” – rechargeable batteries that store protons from water in a porous carbon material – could make a valuable contribution.

Not only is our new battery environmentally friendly, but it is also technically capable with further development of storing more energy for a given mass and size than currently available lithium-ion batteries – the technology used in South Australia’s giant new battery.

Potential applications for the proton battery include household storage of electricity from solar panels, as is currently done by the Tesla Powerwall.

With some modifications and scaling up, proton battery technology may also be used for medium-scale storage on electricity grids, and to power electric vehicles.
...
Essentially, a proton battery is thus a reversible hydrogen fuel cell that stores hydrogen bonded to the carbon in its solid electrode, rather than as compressed hydrogen gas in a separate cylinder, as in a conventional hydrogen fuel cell system.

Unlike fossil fuels, the carbon used for storing hydrogen does not burn or cause emissions in the process. The carbon electrode, in effect, serves as a “rechargeable hydrocarbon” for storing energy.

What’s more, the battery can be charged and discharged at normal temperature and pressure, without any need for compressing and storing hydrogen gas. This makes it safer than other forms of hydrogen fuel.

Powering batteries with protons from water splitting also has the potential to be more economical than using lithium ions, which are made from globally scarce and geographically restricted resources. The carbon-based material in the storage electrode can be made from abundant and cheap primary resources – even forms of coal or biomass.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319918302714 "Technical feasibility of a proton battery with an activated carbon electrode"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sstr.202000113 "The Renaissance of Proton Batteries"

Next is about human’s proton motors:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167779901015761 "Proton pumps: mechanism of action and applications"
 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10219236/ "Proton Pumps: Molecular Mechanisms, Inhibitors and Activators of Proton Pumping"
 

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Protein molecular machines, also known as proton pumps, are the most important element of biological membranes. These are membrane proteins that are widely represented and distributed in all groups of living organisms (including some viruses). They have the ability to create and maintain an electrochemical proton gradient by transferring protons from one side of the membrane to the other. Proton pumps are divided into various large classes, which differ in their use of different energy sources, each having different polypeptide composition and evolutionary origin.

The source of free energy for pumping protons in protein pumps can be: the chemical energy of energy-rich metabolites (f.e., in proton ATPases), electron transfer energy from compounds with lower redox potential (f.e., in mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes), and light energy (f.e., in retinal proteins). The transfer of a proton in proton pumps is usually electrogenic. However, there are also no less significant, and perhaps even more significant non-electrogenic proton pumps, such as hydrogen–potassium ATPase or H+/K+ ATPase of the gastric mucosa, which is primarily responsible for the acidification of stomach contents.

The new Special Issue entitled “Proton pumps: molecular mechanisms, inhibitors and activators of proton pumping” includes a total of six contributions: four original articles and 2 reviews. These articles and reviews provide new information relating to proton pumps, starting with an understanding of the basics of the mechanism of reactions catalyzed by them, their significance in cellular physiology and the molecular mechanisms of intracellular signaling, and ending with their applied use in medicine. Despite the modest number of contributions, they touch on a wide range of both fundamental and applied issues and provide new information: on the molecular mechanisms and catalytic features of specific protein proton pumps (in particular, cytochrome oxidase and ATP synthetase); on the features of cellular physiology and the regulation and mechanisms of signal transduction involving proton pumps; and on molecular medical research of the use of medicines—inhibitors of the proton pump of the stomach H+/K+ ATPase.

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/abstract/S0167-7799(01)01576-1 "Proton pumps: mechanism of action and applications"

Next is not specifics about protons as power sources, but is news about structures of protons:
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-physicists-hitch-proton.html "Physicists confirm hitch in proton structure"
 

Quote

"We want to understand the substructure of the proton. And we can imagine it like a model with the three balanced quarks in the middle," Li explained. "Now, put the proton in the electric field. The quarks have positive or negative charges. They will move in opposite directions. So, the electric polarizability reflects how easily the proton will be distorted by the electric field."

To probe this distortion, nuclear physicists used a process called virtual Compton scattering. It starts with a carefully controlled beam of energetic electrons from Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility. The electrons are sent crashing into protons.

In virtual Compton scattering, electrons interact with other particles by emitting an energetic photon, or particle of light. The energy of the electron determines the energy of the photon it emits, which also determines how the photon interacts with other particles.

Lower energy photons may bounce off the surface of the proton, while more energetic photons will blast inside the proton to interact with one of its quarks. Theory predicts that when these photon-quark interactions are plotted at from lower to higher energies, they will form a smooth curve.

Nikos Sparveris, an associate professor of physics at Temple University and spokesperson for the experiment, said this simple picture didn't hold up to scrutiny. The measurements instead revealed an as-yet-unexplained bump.

"What we see is that there is some local enhancement to the magnitude of the polarizability. The polarizability decreases as the energy increases as expected. And, at some point, it appears to be coming temporarily up again before it will go down," he said. "Based on our current theoretical understanding, it should follow a very simple behavior. We see something that deviates from this simple behavior. And this is the fact that is puzzling us at the moment."

The theory predicts that the more energetic electrons are more directly probing the strong force as it binds the quarks together to make the proton. This weird spike in the stiffness that nuclear physicists have now confirmed in the proton's quarks signals that an unknown facet of the strong force may be at work.

"There is something that we're clearly missing at this point. The proton is the only composite building block in nature that is stable. So, if we are missing something fundamental there, it has implications or consequences for all of physics," Sparveris confirmed.

The physicists said that the next step is to further tease out the details of this anomaly and conduct precision probes to check for other points of deviation and to provide more information about the anomaly's source.

This is a rough draft. A few days from now you should review this page for updates.

Sources: https://swudususuwu.substack.com/p/biomimetic-robots-run-off-of-proton

Edited April 13 by Swudu Susuwu

[exchemist]

2 hours ago, Swudu Susuwu said:

Biological humans have lungs which use atmospheric gas to "fire"/"rust" our blood cells for synthases, which uses protons and allows human moves.
This post allows all uses.

https://futurism.com/proton-battery "What's A Proton Battery? Three Things You Need To Know."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S240582972300291X "Proton batteries shape the next energy storage"

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405829722005220 "Accessing the proton storage in neutral buffer electrolytes using an electrodeposited molybdenum phosphate"
 

https://www.azorobotics.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=361 "The Best Sources of Renewable Energy to Power Humanoid Robots"
 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sstr.202000113 "The Renaissance of Proton Batteries"

https://techxplore.com/news/2018-03-power-proton-battery-breakthrough.html "All power to the proton: Researchers make battery breakthrough"

https://theconversation.com/how-protons-can-power-our-future-energy-needs-93124 " How protons can power our future energy needs"

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319918302714 "Technical feasibility of a proton battery with an activated carbon electrode"

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/sstr.202000113 "The Renaissance of Proton Batteries"

Next is about human’s proton motors:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167779901015761 "Proton pumps: mechanism of action and applications"
 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10219236/ "Proton Pumps: Molecular Mechanisms, Inhibitors and Activators of Proton Pumping"
 

https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/abstract/S0167-7799(01)01576-1 "Proton pumps: mechanism of action and applications"

Next is not specifics about protons as power sources, but is news about structures of protons:
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-physicists-hitch-proton.html "Physicists confirm hitch in proton structure"
 

This is a rough draft. A few days from now you should review this page for updates.

Sources: https://swudususuwu.substack.com/p/biomimetic-robots-run-off-of-proton

While a lot of this seems to be gibberish, the "proton battery" is interesting. I was not aware of this.

However, as I understand it from the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319918302714 the protons do not take the place of electrons in such a battery but play the same role as Li+ ions do in a conventional Li ion battery. In a Li ion battery, Li+ ions move into and out of a metal electrode, whereas in this "proton battery" it is H+ ions that move, across a Nafion membrane, into and out an activated carbon electrode.  The "battery" is described as being a reversible fuel cell, in which water is electrolysed in the charging phase, loading the electrode with H atoms, which are then released and combine with oxygen to re-form water in the discharge phase. 

What I am not clear about, from reading the paper, is how the oxygen side of things works. Oxygen must be generated in the electrolysis phase and oxygen must be recombined with the emerging H+ to re-form water in the discharge phase. Is this oxygen released as free O2 and is fresh O2 from the atmosphere used in the discharge phase? Or is the O generated during electrolysis somehow sequestered within the cell and made available again for recombination with H during discharge?  

Edited April 13 by exchemist

[swansont]

5 hours ago, Swudu Susuwu said:

Sources: https://swudususuwu.substack.com/p/biomimetic-robots-run-off-of-proton

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[Swudu Susuwu]

Wish to discuss how this could affect us, what lacks to adopt this, plus what more college/school sources exists about this.

Had found previous articles about how humans use molecular motors based off of prootons, plus how cells of humans use protons for most tasks, but now can not locate this. Thought that, similar to humans, this uses fire/rust/redox.

Thought had understood that inputs/outputs to/from proton-based power-sources would have electrons (or what the previous medium was; As inputs/outputs to power-sources, humans do not use electrons but use glucose/sucrose atoms for glucolysis)
) but that the internal structures of storage consist most of carbon/protons.

Had found previous articles about robots that ran off of some sort of proton-based power-sources, but am now unable to locate this. The articles talked about how this was not done as central batteries but was distributed throughout the robot's chassis.

Have any of you used/saw tools powered from protons? Would love to know more about this.

Because renewables do not have constant output, would this do good to buffer the outputs for us, plus, versus lithium (which is not as abundant as carbon,) cost less for us?

Edited April 13 by Swudu Susuwu

[exchemist]

14 minutes ago, Swudu Susuwu said:

Wish to discuss how this could affect us, what lacks to adopt this, plus what more college/school sources exists about this.

Had found previous articles about how humans use molecular motors based off of prootons, plus how cells of humans use protons for most tasks, but now can not locate this. Thought that, similar to humans, this uses fire/rust/redox.

Thought had understood that inputs/outputs to/from proton-based power-sources would have electrons (or what the previous medium was,) but that the internal structures of storage consist most of carbon/protons.

Had found previous articles about robots that ran off of some sort of proton-based power-sources, but am now unable to locate this. The articles talked about how this was not done as central batteries but was distributed throughout the robot's chassis.

Have any of you used/saw tools powered from protons? Would love to know more about this.

Because renewables do not have constant output, would this do good to buffer the outputs for us, plus, versus lithium (which is not as abundant as carbon,) cost less for us?

It's just a new concept for a battery.

I repeat, the protons do not take the place of electrons, in any way. They take the the place of the lithium ions in a conventional lithium ion battery, that is all. The electrical circuit remains entirely conventional, with metal wires, through which electrons carry a current, as usual. 

[Swudu Susuwu]

38 minutes ago, exchemist said:

They take the the place of the lithium ions in a conventional lithium ion battery, that is all.

News told that due to lack of lithium was difficult to replace all vehicles with fuelless. would proton batteries allow this?