The research team of Assoc. Prof. Li Mingqiang from School of Energy and Power Engineering, DUT, has made a breakthrough in green power battery by proposing a high performance Chloride-ion battery based on “water-in-salt” electrolyte. The research work entitled High-Voltage and Long-Lasting Aqueous Chlorine-Ion Battery by virtue of “water-in-salt” electrolyte was published in iScience. Graduate student Li Tong is the first author, and Assoc. Prof. Li Mingqiang is the corresponding author.
Chloride-ion battery (CIB) is regarded as a promising electrochemical storage device due to their high theoretical volumetric capacities, low cost, and high abundance. However, low-cycle life limits its application in the energy storage field. Herein, the research team reports a rechargeable CIB composed of a “water-in-salt” electrolyte, a zinc anode, and a carbon cathode (graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon black). These cathodes exhibit initial reversible specific capacities of 136, 108, and 102 mAh g−1, respectively. Especially, a reversible discharge capacity of 95 mAh g−1 was retained after 2000 cycles when graphene is used as the cathode. Such high cycling stability was first reported in CIBs. Furthermore, the use of “water-in-salt” electrolytes has improved the discharge platform of aqueous CIBs to 2.6V. The charge and discharge mechanism of the carbon cathode was investigated by TEM, FTIR, Raman, and XPS, proving the chloride ions reversible absorption/desorption in carbon cathodes.
In recent years, Li Mingqiang’s team has been dedicated to the research and development of high-performance green batteries, and has made a series of progress. After they developed a high-energy nickel-zinc battery (which was selected as one of the top 10 global battery breakthroughs in 2018 by Lithium Big Data, ), they also proposed the first high-energy iodine- ion battery and bromine-ion battery, and the related results were published in Journal of Power Sources () and Sustainable Energy & Fuels () respectively. In recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of advanced materials, Assoc. Prof. Li Mingqiang was awarded the title of “IAAM Fellow” by International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) in 2020, which is the world’s leading academic organization in the field of advanced materials.
Link to the paper: (20)31173-1
