Gold Coating Could Solve Long-Standing Challenge With Zinc Batteries

(MENAFN- Investor Ideas) ( Newswire)

As the demand for more reliable power systems grows in the renewable energy sector, the race is on to develop batteries that cost less but have a longer lifespan.

While zinc-based batteries are safer and more cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries, a major obstacle to their use in large-scale, grid storage is their shorter lifespan. They fail sooner because they develop tiny, tree-shaped metal structures on the anode called dendrites, which cause the battery to short circuit.

Now researchers from Concordia University have found a way to slow dendrite formation. Using the ultrabright X-rays of the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, they found that“sprinkling” a small amount of gold nanoparticles on a battery's inner surface can cut dendrite growth by up to 50 times compared to regular zinc batteries. Their gold-treated batteries went on to work for more than 6,000 hours in lab settings.

Says Seungil Lee, a PhD student at Concordia and lead author of the team's paper, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

Although gold is expensive, the technique the researchers developed – which sparsely distributes particles on less than 10 per cent of the battery surface – could be relatively cheap to implement for large-scale battery applications.

Says Ayse Turak, Associate Professor, Physics, and Lee's supervisor.

Added Turak.

Now the team is studying how the particle-coating technology could perform with copper electrodes for next-generation anode-free batteries. They are also investigating whether sparse nanoparticles could be used beyond batteries, in other technologies such as sensors, photovoltaics, and lighting.

Watch a video about this research

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More CLS science highlights

The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan and one of the largest science projects in Canada's history. More than 1,000 academic, government and industry scientists from around the world use the CLS every year in innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research.
The Canada Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Government of Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan fund CLS operations.

Greg Basky
Communications Coordinator
Canadian Light Source
306-370-9446
...

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