University of Sydney's zinc-air battery storage capacity is five times that of lithium-ion batteries

According to ZDNet news, chemical engineering researchers at the University of Sydney (USyd) and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a new battery technology - zinc-air batteries. Researchers believe it can be used in electronic products to replace lithium-ion batteries.

It is understood that zinc-air batteries previously used expensive metals such as platinum and iridium oxide as catalysts, so their application range was limited to a small portion of electronic equipment such as hearing aids and railway signal systems. Nowadays, new technologies have begun to use high-performance, low-cost catalysts that are crystallized from metal oxides such as iron, cobalt, and nickel.

Zinc-air battery is a kind of metal air battery. It generates electricity by oxidizing zinc in the air. Compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries, it has the characteristics of large storage capacity, safety, environmental protection, and lower cost. Lithium-ion batteries have become the default battery option for smartphones and electric vehicles because of their light weight and high power supply rate. However, due to their nature, short circuits can cause very serious consequences. The zinc-air battery uses abundant resources of zinc metal itself, and is not as short-circuited as a lithium-ion battery, and its storage capacity is five times that of a lithium-ion battery.

“Our approach can produce a lot of high-performance and low-cost catalysts.” Professor Yuan Chen of the University of Sydney’s Department of Engineering Technology said, “We are working on some basic technological issues and we hope to develop sustainable metal air for our society. battery."

It has to be said that if such batteries can replace lithium-ion batteries in the future, such as smart phones and other electronic devices, one can make mobile phone life can increase, two smart phones are expected to add more features. Other rechargeable metal air batteries also include the use of magnesium and graphene.