Will lithium batteries be replaced by zinc batteries?

For more than 20 years, lithium batteries have stood out in the rechargeable battery market, but safety concerns such as inability to bend, intolerance to high temperatures, and easy fire have always been the weaknesses of lithium batteries. According to Hong Kong media reports, recently, teachers and students of the City University of Hong Kong have developed a water-based zinc battery with flexibility and safety as a selling point. It is expected to challenge the status of lithium batteries in some applications such as wearable electronic products. Zhi Chunyi, an associate professor at the School of Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, said that zinc-based batteries (hereinafter referred to as zinc batteries) have a history of more than a hundred years and are the second commercialized battery in the world, only slightly later than lead-acid batteries. However, in the past, zinc batteries are important for one-time use. In addition, the charging and discharging performance of the conventional zinc battery has been unsatisfactory, and the number of charging and discharging is too few. Until more than three years ago, the water-based zinc battery (its electrolyte containing water) studied in the university could only be charged and discharged 100 to 300 times. Zhi Chunyi and a group of doctoral students began to study water-based zinc batteries more than 3 years ago, and encountered many difficulties in the initial stage. Two years ago, they abandoned strong alkaline electrolytes, switched to weak acid electrolytes, and changed one of the electrodes to nano-manganese dioxide materials. They made a major breakthrough, increasing the number of charge and discharge times to more than 1,000; After 1000 times, its power storage can still be maintained at 97% of the original. A few years ago, soft lithium batteries were still not commercially processed. They hope to develop soft water-based zinc batteries to meet market applications and requirements, such as wearable electronic products. Since the electrolyte of water-based zinc batteries is originally liquid, it is difficult to encapsulate and leak easily, so they add hydrogel to make the electrolyte semi-solid, which can maintain soft and bendable characteristics, and is easier to encapsulate, in case of encapsulation If it is damaged, the electrolyte will not leak. In addition, since the electrolyte of a water-based zinc battery contains water, it is inherently non-flammable and safer than the organic electrolyte of a lithium battery. After improvement, the water-based zinc battery they developed will not explode or catch fire in extremely harsh working environments, such as impact, cutting, fire, bending, etc., and can continue to supply stable power, greatly improving the safety. Zhi Chunyi believes that because electric vehicles have high endurance requirements and high energy density of lithium batteries, they believe that they will still have an advantage in this market. However, considering factors such as the safety and cost of lithium batteries and the reserves of lithium metal on the earth, he believes that it is unlikely that lithium batteries will dominate all rechargeable battery markets in the future. Doctoral students Li Hongfei and Tang Zijie who participated in the research and development work both believe that lithium batteries began to appear in the mobile phone market in 1996, and it has only been more than 20 years, and the history of the electric vehicle market is shorter, so there is no problem with the production of lithium for the time being. However, as some countries require automobile factories to stop production of fuel vehicles and fully convert to pure electric vehicles within a time limit, it may cause problems with insufficient lithium production and rising prices. With more zinc reserves and lower costs, the future prospects of zinc batteries are worth looking forward to, and I believe they will surely occupy a place in the rechargeable battery market. Disclaimer: Some pictures and content of articles published on this site are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact to delete. Previous: What are the advantages of 18650 lithium batteries?