Your Future Battery May be Powered By Water

It’s no secret that battery technology hasn’t changed much over the past several decades. The most important elements in them, which are usually lithium and cobalt, are metals that are only located in certain parts of the world. Mining them is not only expensive but negatively impacts the environment.

In addition to this, global supply chain disruptions due to pandemics or an uprising can severely disrupt the availability of said elements. The global supply shortages of processors and its adverse effects on the tech and automotive industries serves as proof of the problems that can occur.

Researchers at Texas A&M University are investigating alternative components for batteries, to offer a better solution. The study, which was recently published in Cells Report Physical Science, looks at the feasibility of using a metal-free, water-based battery. Such a composition would be less flammable compared to lithium ones, which when ruptured can prove explosive.

“By going metal-free, we can address the pressing global demand for strategic metals used in batteries, and by going aqueous, we replace the flammable volatile electrolyte with water,” said Dr. Jodie Lutkenhaus, professor and Axalta Coating Systems Chair in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M.

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They used a very sensitive measurement technique called electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring to study its properties. This is to determine how electrons, ions and water transfer in the electrode as it is charged and discharged. The results showed that enhanced electrode-water interactions lead to improved energy storage performance.

A metal-free, aqueous battery would require less use of metal elements in its production. This might drive down production cost in addition to being a much safer alternative to conventional lithium based batteries used in smartphones and electric cars. But that’s not all, these metal-free, water based batteries will be much safer if used in implantable medical devices.

“By using completely different materials, such as we do with polymers here, we remove metals from the picture completely. My favorite aspect of this work is our ability to deeply characterize the molecular transport processes associated with this redox polymer, ” said Dr. Lutkenhaus.

At this point in time, the energy capacity of said batteries is lower than that of traditional Li-ion ones. It will take more time before scientists perfect the formula with the use of various materials. But their existence proves that we will one day be able to produce environmentally friendly and less volatile batteries.

Dr. Lutkenhaus believes that in the future, her team will need to identify more suitable polymers for this type of battery. Once they achieve this, it would be possible to create ones that are powerful enough to have practical uses.