A Universal Thick Anode for Aqueous and Seawater Energy Storage Devices

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Energy Storage

Background:

• Aqueous and seawater energy storage devices offer safe, affordable, and sustainable solutions for electrical grids.
• Widespread adoption is hindered by the lack of durable thick anodes capable of high-capacity energy storage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report the development of the first universal thick anode for aqueous and seawater energy storage.
• To demonstrate its stability and performance across a wide range of ionic systems and electrode thicknesses.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a thick anode using polymer nanosheets and carbon nanotubes.
• Testing the anode's performance in various simple-ion (e.g., H+, Li+, Zn2+) and complex-ion (e.g., seawater) systems.
• Electrochemical characterization including cycle life in supercapacitors and areal capacity in batteries.
• Computational simulations to understand the ion storage mechanism.

Main Results:

• The anode operates stably across 15 simple-ion and 3 complex-ion systems, including seawater ions.
• Achieved exceptional cycle life (up to 380,000 cycles) in supercapacitors and ultrahigh areal capacities (6.5 mAh cm-2) in batteries.
• Demonstrated compatibility with sea salt electrolytes and metal-free cathodes for high-performance seawater batteries.
• Enabled thick electrode fabrication (1 mm) with excellent conductivity, mechanical robustness, and chemical stability.

Conclusions:

• The developed polymer-based thick anode is a universal solution for aqueous and seawater energy storage.
• Its high loading capability, stability, and cost-effectiveness make it promising for practical grid-scale energy devices.
• This innovation addresses a key limitation in the deployment of sustainable and safe energy storage technologies.