HEИндивидуална стипендия2025–2026

WIZBAT · Low-cost and eco-friendly localized water-in-salt electrolyte-based rechargeable anode-free Zn-ion batteries

„Хоризонт Европа“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2025-01-01 → 2026-12-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 173 847 €
Участници: 1
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Цинковите батерии без анод се тестват с нов вид електролит, за да се спре отделянето на водород и да се подобри работата им. Това помага за създаването на по-безопасни, евтини и екологични системи за съхранение на енергия от вятър и слънце.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Low-cost and eco-friendly localized water-in-salt electrolyte-based rechargeable anode-free Zn-ion batteries

The transition to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar is crucial for a sustainable future. However, their intermittent nature requires efficient and safe energy storage systems. While lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have dominated the market, their high cost, limited lithium resources, and safety concerns due to flammable electrolytes limit their suitability for large-scale grid storage. Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as a promising alternative, offering advantages such as low cost, environmental friendliness, and non-flammability. However, conventional AZIBs often use excess zinc metal anodes, which reduce energy density and mask performance issues. Anode-free zinc-ion batteries (AFZIBs) eliminate the initial zinc anode, depositing zinc in situ during charging, thereby maximizing energy density. A key challenge for AFZIBs is hydrogen evolution and side reactions in aqueous electrolytes, which degrade performance and shorten battery life. This project aims to develop a novel localized water-in-salt electrolyte (LWiSE) to suppress hydrogen evolution and enhance the reversibility of zinc deposition. By using low-cost, eco-friendly salts and diluents, the project seeks to create high-performance AFZIBs suitable for practical applications, including large-format pouch cells under lean electrolyte conditions. The outcomes are expected to contribute to safer, more affordable, and sustainable energy storage solutions, supporting the EU’s green energy transition and reducing dependence on critical raw materials.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted tremendous attention for the application in the field of large-scale energy storage devices due to their instinct properties of non-flammability, low-cost and high ionic conductivity of aqueous electrolyte. Rechargeable anode-free zinc ion batteries (AFZIBs) have multiple advantages over its conventional counterpart, especially by removing Zn metal in its initial state, the weight and volume of anode-free cells is significantly reduced, maximizing the energy density of AZIBs. The obstacles impeding practical applications of AFZIBs originated from the H2 evolution during batteries cycling. In a typical zinc-ion battery electrolyte, Zn2+ solvated with six water molecules forms hydrated zinc ion [Zn(H2O)6]2+. Preliminary research implies that H2 evolution primarily originates from solvated water, rather than free water not interacting with Zn2+, since the interaction between H2O and Zn2+ weakens the O-H bond of H2O, leading to deprotonation of the solvated water. Water-in-salt electrolytes (WiSEs) can prevent the formation of hydrated zinc ions ([Zn(H2O)6]2+), thus, suppressing H2 evolution. However, in such case, boosted electrochemical performance is achieved only at high costs because a large quantity of expensive fluorinated salts is used in electrolyte. In this project, we aim to lower the WiSE salt concentration by diluting the electrolytes with an inert solvent (called a diluent) that dissolves the water but not the salt. Therefore, the diluent does not alter the salt solvation structure of WiEs, forming a localized water-in-salt electrolyte (LWiSE). The as-designed LWiSE is expected to have the same effect as WiSE regarding H2 evolution suppression but is comparable to the conventional dilute aqueous electrolyte in terms of production cost and eco-friendliness. The as-designed LWiSE will be finally demonstrated in different prototypes, from lab-scale coin cells to industry large-scale pouch cells.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FUER TECHNOLOGIE · KarlsruheКоординаторГермания