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Sustainable batteries

A chloride hybrid for a stride

Nature Sustainability (2023)Cite this article

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A safe aqueous electrolyte design with hybrid salts and solvents turns a zinc metal anode highly reversible under conditions matching practical operational requirements, paving the way for the future market adoption of more sustainable battery technologies.

Starting from an aqueous formula that contains only LiCl and ZnCl2 salts, the team first showed benefits of a high concentration of Cl− anions in engineering the solvation structure from [Zn(H2O)6]2+ to more favourable [ZnCl4]2−. Essentially, when the number of water molecules entering the electrical double layer decreases, the competing hydrogen evolution reaction can be inhibited. Jiang and colleagues further added N(CH3)3Cl and DMC in order to suppress the parasitic water splitting to a greater extent. Combined molecular dynamics simulations and spectroscopic characterizations revealed that the introduction of the N(CH3)3Cl salt and DMC co-solvent can strengthen the O–H bonds of water molecules without impairing the [ZnCl4]2− solvation structure (Fig. 1b), thus reducing the proton supply from the electrolyte for suppression of undesired hydrogen evolution reaction.

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Fig. 1: Schematics of Zn metal anode electrochemistry.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support provided by The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and express thanks to M. A. Schroeder for discussions on this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Vadim Shipitsyn & Lin Ma

  2. Battery Complexity, Autonomous Vehicle and Electrification (BATT CAVE) Research Center, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    Vadim Shipitsyn & Lin Ma

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  1. Vadim Shipitsyn
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  2. Lin Ma
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Correspondence to Lin Ma.

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Shipitsyn, V., Ma, L. A chloride hybrid for a stride. Nat Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01098-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01098-5

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