Engineering · Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Researchers report a redesigned water-based electrolyte for zinc batteries that achieved an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.12% over 800 cycles. The electrolyte also supported a 1.0-Ah zinc pouch cell for 70 cycles with negligible capacity decay.
A study in Nano-Micro Letters finds that isomalt, a sugar-derived additive, improved the operation of alkaline zinc–iron flow batteries. Batteries using the additive cycled for over 500 cycles at 20 mA cm⁻² and reached 87.5% energy efficiency in full-cell tests.
Researchers report a zinc-based cathode material for sodium-ion batteries that operated at 4.5 volts and retained 79% of its capacity after 500 cycles. The material was made using a straightforward coprecipitation process and reached a maximum discharge capacity of 69.4 milliamp-hours per gram under a low-rate test.
A surface-engineered hard-carbon anode retained 96.5% of its capacity after 5,000 charge-discharge cycles in a sodium-ion battery test. The design also improved the battery’s initial efficiency and supported a pouch cell that operated for 500 cycles.
A new manganese-based flow-battery design reached a specific capacity of 156.2 ampere-hours per litre of catholyte, a 409% increase over reported manganese sulfate electrolytes. The battery also operated stably at a current density 30 times higher than that reported for manganese-based semi-solid flow batteries.
Researchers report a nickel-iron catalyst that sustained water electrolysis for more than 3,400 hours at an industrial current density. The reported hydrogen production cost was $2.28 per kilogram, below the European Commission’s 2030 target.
A manganese dioxide cathode containing isolated, high-spin cobalt atoms helped an aqueous zinc–manganese battery deliver 658 mAh per gram and run for more than 15,000 cycles. The researchers say the cobalt enabled reversible three-electron storage and helped convert deposited manganese compounds back into active material without added acid or a redox mediator.
