A team from University of California in Los Angeles is doing exciting work to advance large-scale energy storage using batteries. California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) included this work in its 2021 list of highly promising projects, and the work is ongoing. The research centers on zinc-vanadium chemistry as an alternative to lithium-ion.
Why Zinc-Vanadium Chemistry Could Be So Important
Richard Kaner and Yuxhang Li are building on previous work benefiting from CNSI funding. They plan to develop a grid-scale battery using abundant, non-toxic zinc-vanadium chemistry, that will be safer and less expensive than lithium-ion.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency believes that less than 5% of energy generated in the United States enters storage. This shortfall is making the grid more vulnerable to fluctuations in power generation and demand, they say.
It is also a reflection of how little renewable energy the grid is using. We need more green electricity, they believe. “But the sun doesn’t shine all the time, and the wind doesn’t blow all the time,” research leader Kaner is at pains to point out.
How This New Battery Initiative Is Shaping Up
Richard Kaner and Yuxhang Li are developing a battery that will deploy vanadium oxide in the cathode, and metallic zinc metal at the anode. They will use Kaner’s ‘laser-scribed’ synthesis method to produce a unique vanadium oxide cathode.
Then they will probe its effectiveness using advanced cryogenic electron microscopy that Li is pioneering. Their work is therefore at the cutting edge of battery science, and enjoys support from two venerable institutions.
The two researchers intend to use a water-based aqueous electrolyte to curate the electrons as they move between the electrodes. This will be non-flammable, compared to lithium which can catch fire and explode, they say.
Laboratory experiments using zinc-vanadium chemistry showed that it cycles (charges and discharges) three-times faster than lithium-ion batteries. “This is better than anything that we found in the published literature, and we’ve had a few ‘eureka’ moments when we looked at our data,” Li says.
More Information
Vanadium Flow Finds a Home in Grid Storage
Aqueous Zinc-Ion Battery Breakthrough
