As the world approaches its  third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, scientists have discovered a technique to make thin, flexible and low cost batteries from the waste materials from billions of single use face masks

Researchers at Russia's National University of Science and Technology(NUST MISiS), together with colleagues from the United States and Mexico, used medical waste to make solid-state supercapacitors, according to the article published in the Journal of Energy Storage.

The scientists repurposed old face masks into " highly effective textile supercapacitors" and used waste medicine blister packs as a shell, establishing the framework for making batteries according to the reporter.

According to researchers, massive amounts of polymer waste have been generated from the masks during the pandemic, using graphene saturation to give them unique energy storage properties.

The masks are first cleansed with ultrasonic, then dipped in graphene 'ink', to saturate the mask according to Professor Anvar Zakhidov, scientific director of the project.After that, the material is compressed and heated to 140°C, which is much lower than the temperature necessary for typical supercapacitors batteries, before a separator, also formed of mask materials, is placed between the two electrodes. The material is then saturated with a specific electrolyte, and a protective shell made from medical blister packs, such as those used to store paracetamol.

The resulting batteries, according to the researchers exhibited a high density of stored energy and electric capacity of up to 98-watt/kg putting them in the ballpark of today's average lithium-ion batteries. The capacity can be increased by adding nanoparticles of inorganic perovskite of CaCo oxide type to the electrodes.

The batteries can currently be found in home goods such as clocks and lamps, but the researchers say they hope to use the new technology for electric automobiles, solar farms and other applications in the future.