The increase in the average temperature of the earth's surface due to various greenhouse gases like Carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation or burning of fossil fuels due to which heat is trapped in the earth's atmosphere is called Global warming. Without this greenhouse effect, the heat would have escaped from earth's atmosphere. Micro-organisms that are found in the soil are very important for sustaining many ecological processes like nutrient cycling, the transformation of metals and decaying of plant matter. Soil micro-organisms contribute a lot to the consumption and production of greenhouse gases like methane, nitric oxide and Carbon dioxide and human activities like lithium battery component disposal, waste disposal and agriculture have disturbed the micro-organisms ecological processes.
It has been found that material used in the Lithium batteries that are used for powering laptops, computers, electric vehicles and smart phones etc. is impairing a most important bacteria found in the soil called Shewanella oneidensis. This soil bacteria is globally distributed and lives on metal ions and converts them to metals like iron which is used by other microbes as their nutrients. The Lithium ion batteries contain a harmful compound nickel manganese cobalt oxide in its nano-particle form which harms the soil bacteria Shewanella oneidensis. This NMC material found in Lithium batteries is cheap and effective. It is also toxic and good at storing energy. When this material is made in the nanoparticle form, it is very effective as a cathode material and recharges the battery much faster and efficiently than the traditional batteries.
Shewanella oneidensis bacteria is both a good bioremediator and a toxicity indicator species. Due to the particles released by degradation of NMC releasing more Cobalt and Nickel than Manganese, this bacteria exhibit inhibit respiration and growth. Thus, the ecosystem may be affected due to the impairing in the growth of Shewanella bacteria. So, to protect the environment and global warming, the lithium batteries must be kept out of landfills. There is a need to construct new environment-friendly material that is as technologically effective as Lithium batteries, so as to prevent earth's surface from Global warming.
References
Hang, M. N., Gunsolus, I. L., Wayland, H., Melby, E. S., Mensch, A. C., Hurley, K. R., . . . Hamers, R. J. (2016). Impact of Nanoscale Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC) on the Bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. Chemistry of Materials.
