KU Leuven is a research university, founded in 1425 in the city of Leuven, Belgium. This makes it the oldest university in Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg too. KU Leuven announced a project to develop flexible zinc-ion batteries in September 2022. We report on progress since then, as advised by Belga News Agency on November 22, 2024.
KU Leuven’s Vision For Flexible Zinc-Ion Batteries
KU Leuven’s project brief that we link to below, focuses on zinc-ion batteries compared to lithium-ion chemistry. They reasoned against lithium-ion’s perceived ‘explosion potential, unstable cost, and complex manufacturing requirements’.
Whereas, the research team favored zinc-ion technology for its ‘safety, lower cost, and high theoretical capacity advantages’. Although the team was aware of the technology’s ‘limited specific capacity and stability’.
Hold That Thought – What Is Zinc-Ion Chemistry?
A zinc-ion battery uses a zinc metal anode, an electrolyte containing zinc, and materials in its cathode that allow zinc ions to intercalate. Zinc-ion batteries tend to be rechargeable, whereas alkaline and zinc-carbon versions are single use.
Advantages of Flexible Zinc-Ion Batteries
Zinc-ion flexible batteries have potential to penetrate the wearable market, according to Wikipedia. The internet encyclopaedia mentions several advantages, including being safe, ‘ultra-thin’ and potentially flexible.
Recent Breakthrough by the KU Leuven Team
Two years after the initial announcement, the Belga News Agency confirmed a breakthrough. In a nutshell, the news portal says, ‘researchers at KU Leuven have developed a new method for creating fiber-shaped batteries,’ that can be integrated into textiles after resolving two challenges:
- The first of these two obstacles was their poor energy storage capacity.
- While the second was making the fibers longer and more break-resistant.
A KU Leuven technologist told Belga News Agency, “When current batteries are twisted or bent, the contact between the anode and cathode is lost. This breaks the contact with the electrolyte, causing the battery to stop working.”
The Leuven team achieved the previously impossible, by twisting the fibers asynchronously, as opposed to the same way every time. This ensured a stable arrangement that evenly distributed the current, including under physical stress.
“We tested it a thousand times,” they say, “and the battery continued to work smoothly each time”. This feature proved the durability of their design, and its promise.
More Information
Novel Zinc-Ion Battery in Magnetic Field
M Stanley Whittingham Father of Intercalation
