Cheaper than lithium batteries. Zinc air batteries.

The survival of the fittest is the rule of the biosphere, and the cheaper product is the rule of the technology circle.

Zinc air batteries are expensive and difficult to charge, and have not been widely used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones and laptops in the past, but recently researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore said they had found new breakthroughs. Cheaper electric catalysts can be used to help zinc-air batteries reach their rechargeable targets. If you can use this method to mass-produce batteries, you will have the opportunity to compete with lithium ion batteries.

Zinc is a very cheap and rich metal. Zinc air batteries that claim to breathe use zinc alloys for the anode(negative), and cathode(positive) materials come from a large amount of oxygen in the air. The impact of low toxicity on the environment is small., It is also lightweight, stable, and can store five times more energy than lithium-ion batteries. If it is developed, it will be a hot star in the battery industry.

Zinc air batteries were first discovered in the early 19th century. By 1997, the Slovenian inventor MiroZoric developed the first rechargeable zinc air battery and applied it to small and medium-sized buses. However, zinc air batteries are currently only commonly used in a few electronic devices, such as hearing aids, electronic watches, and railway signal devices. This is because zinc air batteries are limited by the high cost of recharging and are prone to self-discharge due to spontaneous reactions with oxygen. disadvantage.

Wiki records that the key to the preservation of zinc empty batteries is the seal. Unless the battery is used immediately, the seal of the battery cathode can not be removed. According to simulation tests, zinc air batteries drop to 95 % after 1 year of storage at room temperature, 90 % after 2 years of storage, and 85 % after 4 years of storage, but as long as the seal is torn, The battery will trigger and start working. At room temperature and without load, according to different battery size specifications, the battery power will drop by 50 % after 3 to 12 weeks, and the battery power will drop to 0 to 10 % after more than 20 weeks.

At present, zinc air batteries that are declared rechargeable on the market need to use expensive metal catalysts such as "platinum" and "antimony oxide" to promote oxygen reduction and production during the charging and discharge process. To overcome this problem, researchers have now found new technologies to make bifunctional oxygen catalysts, published in the international academic journal Advanced Materials.

This new technology is to master the composition, size, and crystallinity of iron, cobalt, and nickel metal oxides to produce electric catalysts. The lead author, Professor YuanChen of the University of Sydney, Australia, said the zinc air batteries developed with the new catalyst had excellent rechargeable properties, and the researchers found that after 60 circular discharges / recharges in 120 hours, the battery power was lost only less than 10 %.

The raw material cost of zinc air batteries is much lower than that of lithium-ion batteries. If scientists really overcome the difficulties of charging and discharging, the rechargeable zinc air batteries will have enormous market potential in the future, and they may be regarded as an environmentally friendly energy technology industry. And contribute to the power source of electric vehicles.

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