Charged for the Future

Methylene Blue (Methylthioninium chloride) is part medication, part poison, and now it seems it will have an entirely new use.  It might have the potential as an entirely new power source.  Yes, that’s right, a battery.  So how does a dye turn into a battery? Well that’s the interesting part.  It can be combined with another liquid to cause a chemical reaction, just like your AA’s at home do, except on a much larger scale. 

What might be the advantage of using this as a potential alternative to our current lithium ion batteries?  Well, for starters, they won’t explode or catch fire.  This will definitely cut out the unnecessary injuries caused by the lithium standard. Instead of being dumped and contaminating water, the dye can be reused in these battery cells.

As of right now it they are only able to recharge/discharge 50 times.The current problem is finding another solution to react to it. Once this is found, I predict this will be a great driver of new or updated technologies. I can’t wait to see the progress!