The world is making the shift towards renewable energy to address the current pressing global challenges. However, harnessing power from renewable energy sources has not been consistent, given circumstances like cloud cover hindering solar energy generation and wind restricting wind energy generation.
Still, the excess power generated through renewable sources goes untapped at peak hours without efficient energy storage solutions.
Grid-level energy storage with Alkaline Metal Surface batteries can ensure the balance between energy demand and supply, even when power generation is not at its highest production.
Even though Alkaline metal sulfur (AMS) batteries offer a cost-effective solution for grid-level energy storage, the formation of solid compounds such as M2S2 and M2S (M = Na, K) during cycling limits their performance by increasing internal resistance and decreasing energy density.
To overcome this challenge, Researchers at Columbia University have unveiled a new type of battery for long-duration energy storage. The team utilized advanced electrolytes in K-Na/S batteries to dissolve polysulfides and sulfides to significantly enhance the reaction kinetics, specific capacity, and the energy density.
These K-Na/S batteries use earth-abundant and inexpensive elements like Potassium (K), Sodium (Na), and Sulphur (S), which not only reduces their cost but also offers prolonged energy storage.
However, the formation of solid M2S2 and M2S and the requirement for very high operation temperature are the major problems in these K-Na/S batteries, which limits the specific capacity of the cathode.
To address this issue, Yuan Yang, the team leader, and his team proposed a new family of amide electrolytes, a solvent of acetamide and ε-caprolactam, that show reasonable solubility of the solid compounds, enhancing the energy density and power density of K-Na/S batteries. Additionally, this high solubility also lowers the operation temperature to 50-100°C from 150°C than its previous designs.
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“It’s important that we be able to extend the length of time these batteries can operate, and that we can manufacture them easily and cheaply,” said the team’s leader Yuan Yang, “Making renewable energy more reliable will help stabilize our energy grids, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and support a more sustainable energy future for all of us.”
“Our approach achieves nearly theoretical discharge capacities and extended cycle life. This is very exciting in the field of intermediate-temperature K/S batteries,” said the study’s co-first author, Zhenghao Yang, a Ph.D. student with Yang.
Journal Reference
- Tian, L., Yang, Z., Yuan, S., Milazzo, T., Cheng, Q., Rasool, S., Lei, W., Li, W., Yang, Y., Jin, T., Cong, S., Wild, J. F., Du, Y., Luo, T., Long, D., & Yang, Y. (2024). Designing electrolytes with high solubility of sulfides/disulfides for high-energy-density and low-cost K-Na/S batteries. Nature Communications, 15(1), 1-9. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51905-6
