Zinc-air rechargeable batteries see advance
These have up to five times the energy density than lithium ion cells and use low-cost materials, but have struggled with recharging. There is increasing interest in using zinc-air structures for flexible consumer batteries as well as aqueous zinc battery sotrage systems in the power grid.
The new method can be used to create bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for building rechargeable zinc-air batteries from scratch.
“Up until now, rechargeable zinc-air batteries have been made with expensive precious metal catalysts, such as platinum and iridium oxide. In contrast, our method produces a family of new high-performance and low-cost catalysts,” said Professor Yuan Chen of the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies.
The catalysts are produced through the simultaneous control of the composition, size and crystallinity of metal oxides of elements such as iron, cobalt and nickel. They can then be applied to build rechargeable zinc-air batteries.
Dr Li Wei, also from the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies, said trials of zinc-air batteries developed with the new catalysts (shown above) had demonstrated excellent rechargeability – including less than a 10 percent battery drop in efficiency over 60 discharging/charging cycles of 120 hours.
“We are solving fundamental technological challenges to realise more sustainable metal-air batteries for our society,” said Chen.
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