Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 14, 2025
06:58
Zinc-Sponge Battery Electrodes that Suppress Dendrites
Published on: September 29, 2020
4.3K
Halide-mediated Ag-Zn batteries in alkaline electrolytes
Jiajie Shen1, Wenjiao Ma1, Jianhui Jin1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, Joint International Research Laboratory of Energy Electrochemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. xliang@hnu.edu.cn.
Chemical Communications (Cambridge, England)
|April 22, 2025
Summary
Adding bromide ions to alkaline silver-zinc batteries significantly improves performance by reducing degradation and enabling a stable polymer-based silver cathode. This innovation leads to highly efficient and long-lasting rechargeable batteries.
Area of Science:
- Electrochemistry
- Materials Science
- Energy Storage
Background:
- Alkaline silver-zinc batteries suffer from cathode dissolution and the shuttle effect, limiting their cycle life.
- Volume changes in the silver cathode during cycling cause capacity degradation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To enhance the cycling stability and performance of alkaline silver-zinc batteries.
- To mitigate key degradation mechanisms in silver-zinc battery systems.
Main Methods:
- Incorporation of bromide ions (Br-) as electrolyte additives.
- Engineering a self-supporting polymer-based silver cathode.
- Electrochemical cycling and performance evaluation.
Main Results:
- Bromide ions effectively suppressed the shuttle effect and cathode dissolution.
- The polymer-based cathode accommodated volume changes, minimizing degradation.
- The battery achieved over 370 cycles with >99.3% Coulombic efficiency and excellent capacity retention.
- A high areal capacity of 2.3 mA h cm-2 was demonstrated.
Conclusions:
- Halide-mediated electrolyte additives and advanced cathode design significantly improve silver-zinc battery performance.
- The developed system shows great promise for practical, high-performance rechargeable battery applications.
Related Concept Videos
03:12Batteries and Fuel Cells
26.8K
A battery is a galvanic cell that is used as a source of electrical power for specific applications. Modern batteries exist in a multitude of forms to accommodate various applications, from tiny button batteries such as those that power wristwatches to the very large batteries used to supply backup energy to municipal power grids. Some batteries are designed for single-use applications and cannot be recharged (primary cells), while others are based on conveniently reversible cell reactions that...
26.8K
03:02Standard Electrode Potentials
42.8K
On comparing the reactivity of silver and lead, it is observed that the two ionic species, Ag+ (aq) and Pb2+ (aq), show a difference in their redox reactivity towards copper: the silver ion undergoes spontaneous reduction, while the lead ion does not. This relative redox activity can be easily quantified in electrochemical cells by a property called cell potential. This property is commonly known as cell voltage in electrochemistry, and it is a measure of the energy which accompanies the charge...
42.8K
02:47Voltaic/Galvanic Cells
55.2K
Spontaneous Chemical Reactions
Spontaneous redox reactions occur abundantly in nature. The chemical reaction occurring in a disposable AA battery powering our remote controls is one such example of a spontaneous redox reaction. Another example is the immersion of coiled copper wire into an aqueous silver nitrate solution. The reaction shows a gradual, visually impressive color change from colorless to bright blue and the formation of a grey precipitate on the copper wire. In this experiment,...
Spontaneous redox reactions occur abundantly in nature. The chemical reaction occurring in a disposable AA battery powering our remote controls is one such example of a spontaneous redox reaction. Another example is the immersion of coiled copper wire into an aqueous silver nitrate solution. The reaction shows a gradual, visually impressive color change from colorless to bright blue and the formation of a grey precipitate on the copper wire. In this experiment,...
55.2K
02:35Electrophilic Addition to Alkynes: Hydrohalogenation
9.8K
Electrophilic addition of hydrogen halides, HX (X = Cl, Br or I) to alkenes forms alkyl halides as per Markovnikov's rule, where the hydrogen gets added to the less substituted carbon of the double bond. Hydrohalogenation of alkynes takes place in a similar manner, with the first addition of HX forming a vinyl halide and the second giving a geminal dihalide.
9.8K
03:03Chemical Reactions in Aqueous Solutions
59.4K
Chemical substances interact in many different ways. Certain chemical reactions exhibit common patterns of reactivity. Due to the vast number of chemical reactions, it becomes necessary to classify them based on the observed patterns of interaction.
59.4K
01:19Acid Halides to Alcohols: LiAlH4 Reduction
2.6K
Acid halides are reduced to alcohols in the presence of a strong reducing agent like lithium aluminum hydride.
The mechanism proceeds in three steps. First, the nucleophilic hydride ion attacks the carbonyl carbon of the acid halide to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Next, the carbonyl group is re-formed, and the halide ion departs as a leaving group, generating an aldehyde. A second nucleophilic attack by the hydride yields an alkoxide ion, which, upon protonation, gives a primary alcohol as...
The mechanism proceeds in three steps. First, the nucleophilic hydride ion attacks the carbonyl carbon of the acid halide to form a tetrahedral intermediate. Next, the carbonyl group is re-formed, and the halide ion departs as a leaving group, generating an aldehyde. A second nucleophilic attack by the hydride yields an alkoxide ion, which, upon protonation, gives a primary alcohol as...
2.6K