Can we survive three days without water or three minutes without air? What if there were no batteries? Imagine driving for three hours without a battery. In today’s society, mobile phones, computers and other applications often use lightweight, high-capacity lithium-ion batteries. However, conventional lithium-ion batteries contain organic electrolytes that are extremely flammable and can catch fire or explode fatally. Because lithium-ion batteries are so common in our lives, and because accidents involving them can directly harm people, there is a desire for a safer battery system.
Sangyeop Lee, a PhD candidate in the Division of Advanced Materials Science at POSTECH, Professor Soojin Park, and Gyujin Song, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry, have created a stable aqueous zinc-ion battery that uses water as an electrolyte. They used a protective polymer layer to stop the corrosion of the electrode and increase the resistance of the zinc anode, which increased the electrochemical stability of the aqueous zinc-ion battery.
The electrolyte of a conventional organic solvent-based battery system, which acts as a channel for ion migration, is naturally flammable and therefore a fire or explosion hazard. Aqueous electrolyte batteries are being explored as a potential solution to this problem. However, zinc-ion batteries have not been used due to the lower reversibility of the zinc anode in aqueous electrolytes, which is caused by zinc dendrites and surface reactions. Using a block copolymer, the POSTECH research team created a zinc anode that was coated with a multi-purpose protective layer. This new polymer layer can withstand volume expansion during battery charging and discharging because it is elastic and flexible.
The polymer protective layer was found to promote homogenized ion distribution and inhibit dendrite development, both of which extend the lifetime of the zinc anode. By reducing unnecessary electrochemical and chemical processes in the electrolyte on the surface of the electrode, the thin layer also increases the stability of the electrode. In addition, the researchers used time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) analysis to show the mobility of zinc ions in the coating layer. Further investigation of the surface characteristics of battery anodes holds promise for imaging the movements of zinc ions, which had been unsuccessful in earlier research.
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