New nickel-zinc batteries or lithium-ion batteries will replace
September 21, 2022
Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in mobile phones, laptops and other portable electronic products. Although it has many advantages, the safety of lithium-ion batteries has been criticized, but also lead to consumer concerns from time to time. As a result, researchers from around the world are dedicated to improving the safety of lithium-ion batteries or looking for alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. A new study shows that a new type of zinc-based battery or is expected to replace lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries from time to time there was a fire, explosion and other accidents, mainly due to the lithium-ion batteries must use flammable organic solvents as the electrolyte, while the zinc-based batteries can use aqueous solution as electrolyte, greatly reducing the battery fire Of the risk, and zinc reserves, low cost, which are conducive to the promotion of zinc batteries. However, the reason why zinc batteries are still rarely used as batteries, an important reason is that the battery charging process is difficult to control, so after repeated use of battery performance dropped significantly.
Researchers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory are determined to solve the problem in terms of improving the electrode structure. Different from the traditional zinc electrode preparation method, instead of directly pressing the zinc powder into a sheet, they are made into a porous sponge-like structure by the emulsion method. Then they built a battery with this new structure as the anode and basic nickel oxide as the cathode. Tests show that this battery in use, zinc oxidation and reduction process are more uniform, so the battery after repeated charge and discharge cycles can still maintain good performance. Researchers hope the new batteries will someday be able to replace lithium-ion batteries, making electronics safer.
