http://www.news.com.au/national/bre...h/news-story/63da3dccecde96cabfff193667c6e572
Energy storage could soon be cheaper, safer and last five times longer as Australian researchers solve the problem of how to recharge zinc-air batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are the conventional choice to run high-energy portable devices such as mobile phones, power tools, and electric cars but the rare metal is expensive and the batteries plagued by safety issues due to overheating.
Zinc-air batteries have long-been thought of as a safer, cheaper and more sustainable replacement to lithium-ion. The heavy metal is one of the world's most abundant and more environmentally friendly to extract than lithium, but since zinc-air batteries were first produced in the 1930s they have only been single use, powering devices like hearing aids.
However a team from the University of Sydney's faculty of Engineering and IT have developed a new way to recharge the batteries using a three step method.
Lead researcher Professor Yuan Chen says they found a way to control the composition, size and crystallinity of iron and cobalt, creating bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts - in other words - react to increase and decrease the amount of oxygen needed to recharge the battery.
Their capacity to store five times more energy than current models makes the batteries suited for powering electric cars and other long lasting devices.
Professor Chen said despite the excitement over the find, the technology will take time to perfect, with issues including a limited 120 recharge cycle compared to lithium-ion's 400-1200 range, and a slow energy delivery speed.
"For example an airplane door uses a supercapacitor which delivers energy quickly so it can immediately open - you wouldn't be able to replace that with a zinc-air battery," Prof Chen said.
But he believes in five to 10 years it will slowly replace lithium-ion as the battery of choice.
"It took about 10 to 20 years to refine lithium technology and to enter the marketplace, and batteries are now a much more competitive field," he said.
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