Scientists Have Developed a New Electrode Material for Batteries

09:44, December 14, 2021

It will help creating potassium batteries of high capacity and power

Scientists have developed an organic electrode material for high-capacity, high-power potassium-ion batteries. It could become an environmentally friendly and cheap alternative to lithium-ion batteries. A detailed description of the study was published in the Journal of Power Sources.

One of the disadvantages of lithium-ion batteries is the limitation in the rate of energy output and storage. This makes it impossible to charge and discharge the device without affecting its performance. In addition, lithium is an exhaustible metal, extracted from underground deposits. The mass use of lithium batteries will eventually lead to a shortage of lithium and an increase in the price of lithium-ion cell production. The authors of the study created an organic compound to replace inorganic materials for potassium-ion battery production. Octahydroxytetraazapentacenedione (OHTAPQ) is a new electrode material for the anode of potassium batteries with a high specific charge capacity. It combines high performance and stability in terms of number of charge-discharge cycles.

"When developing organic materials for batteries, we have two goals. The first one is to create an efficient battery that stores a lot of energy and is lightweight. With the same number of charge-discharge cycles, but with more energy, the battery will last longer. The second is to achieve its stability in terms of the number of charge-discharge cycles during which it will remain functional. The OHTAPQ-based electrode has demonstrated a high specific capacity and stable performance over 1200 charge-discharge cycles. This will allow the material to be used in ultra-fast batteries for any device," says Ivan Zhidkov, Associate Professor at the Ural Federal University's Department of Electrophysics.

After testing the new material as an anode, the scientists concluded that it could achieve record-breaking performance for potassium-ion batteries.

"Organic batteries have great potential for widespread use. Organic materials are lighter than inorganic materials and store more energy. For example, if you lighten the batteries of an electric car, the car will weigh less or store more electricity for the same weight, which means the driving time will increase. The same goes for phones and other battery-powered devices," explains Ivan Zhidkov.

Reference

Scientists from the Institute of Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences (Chernogolovka), the Ural Federal University and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Ekaterinburg), the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Moscow), and the Silesian University of Technology (Gliwice, Poland) worked on the research. The project is supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Russian Federation (project FEUZ-2020-0060).