Earth.com: Spent coffee grounds can help detect brain activity

“I saw papers about using spent grounds to produce porous carbon for energy storage, and I thought maybe we could use this conductive material in our neurochemistry detection work,” Ross told Earth.com. “And I also thought this would be a good excuse to buy lots of coffee for the lab!”

Microelectrodes are typically made from carbon fiber. Ross said using old coffee grounds could be an effective but green alternative.

For the study, Ross and her chemistry students made porous carbon from coffee grounds that they used to coat electrodes. They found that the coffee-coated electrodes were more sensitive than bare carbon fibers in detecting the neurotransmitter dopamine, allowing researchers to carry out faster measurements.

Ross will present her study's findings at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society, which features 12,000 presentations on a variety of science topics.

Read the Earth.com story.

• Daily Mail (UK): Scientists use coffee grounds to study brain

• Roast Magazine: Spent coffee grounds may someday be used to track brain activity

• Medical Life Sciences News: Waste coffee grounds may help detect minute levels of neurotransmitters

• American Chemical Society: Waste coffee grounds could someday help detect brain waves

• Phys.Org: Waste coffee grounds could help doctors study brain function