Dr Maria Crespo Ribadeneyra led a team including PhD students from Queen Mary and academics from Imperial College London and Newcastle University to deliver a whole week of hands-on activities and demonstrations as part of the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition.

The project, called Future Batt, is finding ways of making batteries more sustainable. Their stand at the exhibition explained that current lithium-ion batteries source materials from all over the world, at great financial and ecological cost, and influencing wars and human exploitation.

“We use many critical materials in lithium-ion batteries, for example, lithium, cobalt or nickel. They are coming from politically compromised countries, and therefore the sustainability of the battery can be improved.” Maria told the BBC World Service.

The team are finding ways of using biomass and plastic waste in creating batteries – prolonging the lifecycle of these materials and reducing the carbon footprint of battery production. They are also learning from the mistakes of lithium-ion batteries and designing the future batteries to be recycled.

Visitors to the exhibition included school groups, grandparents taking their grandchildren on a fun day out, other scientists and local passers-by. They all got the chance to make their own battery using molecules taken from plants and food – including blueberries! They could also make a circuit which they got to take home on a lanyard.

BBC World Service spoke to Maria at the exhibition for their Science in Action programme. Listen back on BBC Sounds – they meet Future Batt at around eight minutes into the programme.

Maria explained why sodium-ion batteries are likely to be the future of batteries: “In China they have already demonstrated cars powered by sodium-ion batteries. We do believe that diversifying the energy storage landscape will be the solution, because we don’t want to rely on only one type of battery in any case. Sodium-ion batteries are an alternative, not a competitor.”

Take a look at the video of our visit below.