Scientists
at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have uncovered a
critical molecular cause keeping aqueous rechargeable batteries from becoming a
safer, economical option for sustainable energy storage.
Their findings, published in Science
Advances, reveal how water compromises battery life and performance and how
the addition of affordable salts—such as zinc sulfate—mitigates this issue,
even increasing the battery lifespan by more than ten times.
One of the key determinants of the
lifespan of a battery—aqueous or otherwise—is the anode. Chemical reactions at the anode generate and store
the battery's energy. However, parasitic chemical reactions degrade the anode, compromising the battery
lifespan.
The new study shows how free water
contributes to these parasitic reactions and how zinc sulfate reduces the
amount of free water in the battery.
"Our findings highlight the
importance of water structure in battery chemistry, a key parameter that has
been previously overlooked," said KAUST Professor and Chair of the KAUST
Center of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Storage Technologies (CREST)
Husam Alshareef, the principal investigator leading the study.
Free water describes water molecules that are not strongly bonded with other
molecules. This state allows free water to engage with more molecules than
otherwise, triggering unwanted reactions that consume energy and compromise the
anode.
Sulfate was found to stabilize the bonds
of free water, acting as what the KAUST team describes as a "water
glue," to change the dynamics of the water molecules that reduces the
number of parasitic reactions.
While the bulk of experiments by the
KAUST researchers were done on batteries using zinc sulfate, early
investigation has shown that sulfate has the same effect on other metal anodes,
suggesting the inclusion of sulfate salts into the battery design could be a
universal solution for lengthening the lifespan of all aqueous batteries.
"Sulfate salts are cheap, widely
available and chemically stable, making our solution scientifically and
economically viable," said KAUST Research Scientist Yunpei Zhu, who
conducted the bulk of the experiments.
Aqueous batteries are gaining
significant global attention as a sustainable solution for large-scale energy
storage and are projected to exceed a market size of $10 billion by 2030.
Unlike lithium batteries, which are often used in electric vehicles, aqueous batteries offer a safer and more sustainable
option for integrating renewable energy sources like solar power into electrical grids.
KAUST Professors Omar Mohammed, Omar Bakr, Xixiang Zhang, and Mani Sarathy also contributed to the study.
Source: Research shows how sulfate ions increase the lifespan, performance of aqueous batteries
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