Researchers from Concordia University find way to slow formation of dendrites, currently an obstacle to battery’s use in grid storage
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.
“Coating the electrode is known to improve battery performance, but the small quantity of particles needed for our technique and how they are arranged on the battery surface is a very new, exciting finding,” says Seungil Lee, a PhD student at Concordia and lead author of the team’s paper, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A.
Read more on the CLS website
Image: GiSAXS measurements showing arrangements, spacing of gold particles on electrode surface