Transcript
Assuming that society wants to deploy long range battery-electric cars, trucks, and aircraft on a global scale, there is an increasing need for safer, more cost-effective, and high-performance battery systems that can surpass the capabilities of lithium-ion batteries. That’s because lithium-ion batteries face serious limitations related to cost, finite resources, and safety concerns.
According to new research published in the journal Ecomat, zinc-air batteries have emerged as a better alternative to lithium-ion batteries. That’s because of their low cost, environmental friendliness, high theoretical energy density, and inherent safety. A zinc-air battery consists of a zinc negative electrode and an air positive electrode.
Until now, their major disadvantage has been limited power output and short lifespan, due to poor performance of the air electrodes. However, the new research highlights a breakthrough which has enabled engineers to use a combination of new cheap materials, based on carbon, iron and cobalt minerals to redesign zinc-air batteries.
The new design is so efficient because it suppressed the internal resistance of the batteries, so their actual voltage is close to the theoretical voltage. This resulted in a high peak power density and ultra-long stability. By using abundant natural resources, such as zinc and air, this further enhances the cost-effectiveness and viability of these innovative batteries. Due to the abundance of zinc and the ubiquity of air, this becomes a highly viable and reliable energy storage solution.
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