Capable of undergoing 120,000 charge cycles and being disposed of anywhere, an experimental new battery design might be thought of as truly state-of-the-art.
To the contrary, the magnesium chloride or calcium chloride electrolytes used to carry the charge between the negative and positive electrodes were quite familiar to the Hong Kong-scientists that designed the battery for a very good reason.
They’re used to make tofu.
Researchers from City University of Hong Kong and their colleagues sought to advance the science of water-based batteries, as they’re safer in society and don’t require hazardous waste disposal.
As China has rapidly become the world leader in electric vehicle and renewable energy productions, the lithium-ion battery has come to permeate the society. As well as powering most phones, computers, and other devices, it’s a glaring, approaching waste problem that will involve the need to process millions of tons of battery waste every year.
That’s a major risk for local environments, both urban and natural, since lithium-ion batteries use flammable solvents as the electrolyte which can catch fire or explode if damaged. These fires can be difficult to extinguish as they aren’t water-based, and it’s why power-banks and portable batteries have been banned on many airlines.
Aqueous, or water-based batteries by contrast, don’t have any component that can catch fire, and so are hypothesized as being more environmentally-friendly. Despite being under development in various ways for over 200 years, however, they’ve never caught on in a big way. While safer, the chosen electrolytes have been either too far to the alkaline or the acidic sides of the pH spectrum, which present a different set of challenges, South China Morning Post reports.
The team from City University needed an electrolyte that was water-based, nontoxic, and neutral in pH level, so they turned to food additives: magnesium chloride or calcium chloride.
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In order to make tofu, soy milk is introduced to brine featuring one of these mineral salts which act as a coagulant to turn the milk into a solid.
“Compared with current aqueous battery systems … our system delivers exceptional long-term cycling stability and environmental friendliness under neutral conditions,” the team said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications on February 18th.
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“As magnesium and calcium are naturally abundant in soil, their presence poses minimal environmental risk,” they added.
“Our findings represent a considerable advancement in the development of neutral electrolyte-compatible negative electrode materials, offering a safer, high-performance, long-lasting and environmentally sustainable energy storage solution.”
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