Researchers at Oregon State University’s College of Engineering have invented a battery that uses zinc-manganese nanoalloys as the anode and water as the electrolyte, leading to innovative changes in battery design and manufacturing.
The battery uses a zinc-manganese alloy as the anode material and an inexpensive material, seawater, as the electrolyte, making it safer and less expensive than ordinary battery materials.
Zhenxing Feng, a chemical engineering researcher at Oregon State University, said, “Batteries that use water as an electrolyte solvent have developed rapidly in recent years and are a safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries.”
All batteries include the basic components of anode, cathode, diaphragm and electrolyte, all of which store energy as chemical energy and then convert it into electrical output through a reaction that is needed for locomotives, cell phones, laptops and a host of electronic devices.
Now the most widely used battery is lithium-ion battery. The electrolyte inside the lithium-ion battery is generally dissolved in organic solvents, which are flammable and easily decomposed under high voltage environment,” said Feng Zhenxing. Therefore, there are safety concerns. In addition in the electrode and electrolyte contact place also easy to produce lithium dendrites and lead to short circuit.”
Accidents involving lithium batteries have occurred several times in recent years. 2013 a Boeing 787 airliner parked at an airport caught fire; 2016 a Samsung Galaxy Note7 phone exploded; 2019 a tesla Model S car caught fire.
Feng Zhenxing said batteries that use water as the electrolyte do not have such hidden problems and have the advantages of more economical cost, fast charging cycle and high power density.
The development of such batteries is currently limited by the disadvantages of limited output voltage and low energy density. Batteries with higher energy density can store more energy, and batteries with higher power density can release more energy faster.
The new battery designed by the Oregon State University research group uses a zinc-manganese nano-alloy as the anode material and water as the electrolyte. “Using the special nanostructured alloy material not only inhibits the generation of dendrites, but also demonstrates superb stability when charged and discharged thousands of times under harsh electrochemical conditions.”
Zhenxing Feng said, “We also conducted experiments using seawater instead of high-purity deionized water as the electrolyte, and our research and experiments demonstrated the unprecedented stability of the battery using the nano-alloy material as the anode, demonstrating the potential of putting this battery into commercial-scale production.”
The study was published Jan. 12 in the journal Nature Communications.
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