OREANDA-NEWS. Researchers at the Washington University of in Saint Louis, who specialize in nanotechnology, published an article in the journal Nature Communications on how bricks can be used as batteries to store electricity.

They filled the pores of ordinary building bricks with nanofibres made of conductive plastic, which can store a charge. As scientists note, the charge accumulated in the first such bricks is enough only to power small bulbs, but their capacity can be increased, so that they will become an analogue of the usual lithium-ion batteries. Researchers clarify that these bricks are not batteries in the usual sense (the principle of which is based on chemical reactions inside them) but supercapacitors (which store energy using an electrostatic charge).

Thus, according to the authors of the study, in the future, houses can be built with bricks working on this principle, and the buildings themselves will become supercapacitors for storing electricity.