CHEM Seminar: “Aqueous zinc-ion batteries for stationary energy storage”, Fabio La Mantia, Universität Bremen, 3:30PM October 27 (EN)

Title : Aqueous zinc-ion batteries for stationary energy storage

Speaker: Fabio La Mantia, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany.

Date : October 27th, 2020, Tuesday
Time : 15.30

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/7290645404?pwd=dk8yVGJsaEhYNFJJMk9XTXR0elBWUT09
Meeting ID: 729 064 5404

Abstract
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries have recently shown a promising potential for stationary applications in terms of storage of energy from volatile regenerative sources, such as wind and solar. Using copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHCF) as insertion active material for the positive electrode, it was possible to reach 100 life cycles, a specific energy equal to 46 Wh kg-1, and a specific power equal to 480 W kg-1, with a charge efficiency of 98%. With the aim of reaching a longer cycle life, ideally 10000 cycles, the aging mechanism of CuHCF was investigated in details by electrochemical methods and post-mortem XRD analysis. It was observed that the aging mechanism of CuHCF was not related to the dissolution of the active material, but rather to a phase transformation of the Zn-inserting structure, probably caused by an ion insertion-induced stress. It has been shown that the composition of the electrolyte, and in particular its concentration and the nature of the zinc salt, as well as the presence of co-ions, plays a significant role n the aging mechanism of the material. Tuning the electrolyte composition has thus allowed increasing the battery cycles from 100 to 500. In parallel to this, also the zinc anodes show drastic drawbacks in terms of cyclability, due to the parasite hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, different strategies have been employed in order to improve the zinc electro-deposition efficiency, mainly based on the use of additives in the electrolyte and in the electrode. This has led to an increase in the zinc-electrodeposition efficiency from 85% to more than 98%. Here, I will discuss the recent advancements in understanding the aging mechanism of both CuHCF cathodes and zinc anodes.

Biography
Prof. Fabio La Mantia studied Chemical Engineering at University of Palermo (Italy) and obtained the PhD in Chemistry at the Technical University of Zurich (Switzerland). After his postdoctoral stay in Stanford University (California), he spent 5 years at Ruhr-University of Bochum (Germany) as junior group leader. In 2015 he has started as full professor at University of Bremen (Germany) in the faculty of Production Engineering, where he leads his group “Energy Storage and Energy Conversion Systems”. His research interests are focusing on physical-electrochemistry from fundamentals to applications, including modeling of electrochemical systems, theory of charge transfer, electro-analytical tools, low-temperature heat converters, aqueous and organic metal-ion batteries. Prof. La Mantia has authored 126 peer-reviewed articles, with total citation of 6228, and has an h-index of 34.