Mold Batteries?

Today I will be breaking bad stigmas about mold.  Up until now, you probably only think of mold as the gross stuff that forms on old bread and keeps you from being able to eat it.  However, recent scientific experiments at the University of Dundee in Scotland have shown that there is a good side to mold that we have not seen before.  According to this article from Sciencedaily,com, a certain kind of red bread mold, called Neurospora crassa, may be able to work as a rechargeable battery, and more efficiently than other batteries currently on the market.  Geoffrey Gadd, a professor at the university, figured this out by incubating the fungi in a media containing urea and manganese chloride in order to mineralize the biomass.  After heat treatment, they were left with a mixture of carbonized biomass and manganese oxides.  This complex had properties that made it ideal for use in lithium-ion batteries and super-capacitors.  As described by the picture below, this complex allows for electrons to flow around the manganese ions in the biomass.  This type of battery showed an excellent cycling stability and retained more than 90% capacity after 200 cycles.  This discovery may change the way we think about batteries and mold as well.