Jimmy Jiang envisions a future where every house is powered by renewable energy stored in batteries.
Jiang and his team at the University of Cincinnati have developed a new battery that could have far-reaching implications for the large-scale (大规模) energy storage needed by wind and solar farms.
"Batteries store renewable energy for when it's needed, not just when it's produced. This is crucial for getting the most out of wind and solar power," Jiang said. "Energy generation and energy consumption is always mismatched. That's why it's important to have a device that can store that energy temporarily and release it when it's needed."
They described their novel design in the journal Nature Communications.
Traditional car batteries contain a mix of sulfuric acid and water. While they're inexpensive and made from readily available materials, they have severe drawbacks for industrial or large-scale use. They have a very low energy density (密度), which isn't suitable for storing sufficient power needed to power a city. And they have a low level for electrochemical stability, which means they can blow up.
Water has a voltage (电压) limit. Once the voltage of such a battery goes beyond the stability window of 1.5 volts, the water can decompose into hydrogen and oxygen, which is explosive.
But Jiang and his students have developed a battery without water that can generate nearly 4 volts of power. Jiang's novel design does so by removing from a battery the membrane, which is a huge component of upfront costs and accounts for as much as 30% of the cost of the battery. They invented a new type of energy storage material that improves performance at a lower cost. "Membranes are also inefficient. They can't separate the positive and negative sides completely, so there is always crossover," he said.
The group has submitted temporary patent applications. "There is still a long way to go, but we're advancing toward a dramatic battery transformation in the next decade. I'm confident about that. There is a lot of intense research going into pushing the boundaries of battery performance," Jiang said.
