Alappuzha: Jackfruit is not a mere delicious fruit, but a source of power that helps charge our gadgets like mobile phone and laptop, it has been found out. Prof Vincent Gomas, associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the University of Sydney in Australia, found out the possibility of utilizing jackfruit for making power banks.

JackfruitAccording to the study, the core of the jackfruit is required to make the power bank. Core of the jackfruit is the portion deep inside the fruit beyond the layer of arils. The core of durian fruit also can be used for this purpose. The fleshy part of the core is converted into carbon aerogel after removing the moisture and the electrodes produced from this are super capacitors, the research has proved.

Carbon aerogel is produced when the core of the jackfruit is cooked using autoclave and then freeze dried. This is turned into electrodes to store electricity. The researchers claimed that more amount of power can be stored quickly in these capacitors compared to ordinary batteries.

The jackfruit capacitors is also helpful for fast charging mobile phones and laptops. As the carbon aerogel capacitor is produced from biodegradable waste through simple, chemical-free methods, it is eco-friendly. Its production cost is low but capacity is high, the researcher claimed. Huge amount of bio waste is available in the jackfruit processing units in Kerala.