STTR Phase I: Organic Additives to Improve Performance in Zinc-Air Batteries

这个STTR一期项目将消除从安全和经济的锌和空气中制造持久电池的最关键障碍。锌在美国储量丰富，锌空气电池的容量是目前锂离子电池的五倍多，但制造可充电锌空气电池的一个关键挑战是，电池内部的锌在充电时自然会形成尖锐的针状结构，称为树突。随着时间的推移，这些树突会长得足够大，从而破坏电池的内部工作，降低效率和寿命。该项目将借鉴邻近领域——电镀行业的原理，创造新的有机化学物质，在充电过程中寻找并阻止电池内的枝晶生长。化学添加剂在电镀中用于控制金属表面形状已有很长的历史，同样的原理也适用于这里设计的用于控制电池充电过程中锌生长的添加剂。这项新技术将使锌空气电池更便宜、更持久，最终取代现有的电池技术，实现更远的电动汽车，减轻士兵的装备重量，为经济贡献一项有价值的技术，并有助于保持美国在储能技术方面的领先地位。这个STTR一期项目将确定必要的关键化学物质，以优雅和经济地抑制锌枝晶的形成，缓解锌空气电池技术全面商业化的最重要挑战之一。避免使用目录中现有化学品的既定策略，该项目将从PI？在电镀行业类似环境中设计添加剂的经验，引入新颖的专有有机化学，直接解决枝晶瓶颈。关键的技术挑战将是优化分子特征，同时提供有效的枝晶抑制和低电压损失。一系列广泛的分子将被创造出来，结合与锌的强相互作用，适度的极化，低成本和直接的可扩展性。在硬币电池和袋状电池的实验规模电化学分析和性能测试中对这些候选产品进行评估和迭代，将产生抑制枝晶的产品，为Zn-Air技术和其他锌基电池市场带来重大价值。如果成功完成，该项目不仅将为这些市场生产产品，而且还将为开发其他金属基电池添加剂提供有用的分子设计原理，并为更广泛的电池行业推广新型添加剂开发的优点。

This STTR Phase I project will remove the most critical roadblock to making long-lasting batteries from safe and economical zinc and air. Zinc is plentiful in the U.S. and zinc-air batteries have the potential to hold more than five times the energy of current lithium-ion batteries, but a key challenge for making rechargeable zinc-air batteries is that the zinc inside the battery naturally forms sharp needles called dendrites during recharging. Over time these dendrites can grow large enough to damage the inner workings of the battery, reducing efficiency and lifetime. This project will borrow principles from an adjacent field, the electroplating industry, to create new organic chemicals that will seek out and stop dendrite growth within the battery during recharging. Chemical additives have a long history in electroplating for controlling the shape of metal surfaces, and the same principles can apply to additives designed here to control zinc growth during battery recharging. This new technology will make zinc-air batteries cheaper and longer-lasting to eventually replace existing battery technologies, enabling longer-distance electric vehicles, reducing equipment weight for soldiers, contributing a valuable technology to the economy, and helping to maintain the role of the U.S. as a leader in energy storage technology.This STTR Phase I project will identify the critical chemistry necessary to elegantly and economically suppress zinc dendrite formation, alleviating one of the most significant challenges complicating the full commercial emergence of Zn-Air battery technology. Eschewing the established tactic of applying existing chemicals from the catalog, this project will take inspiration from the PI?s experience designing additives for similar environments in the electroplating industry to introduce novel proprietary organic chemistry addressing the dendrite bottleneck directly. The key technical challenge will be to optimize the molecular features to simultaneously provide efficient dendrite suppression and low voltage loss. A broad series of molecules will be created to combine strong interactions with zinc, modest polarization, low cost and straightforward scalability. Evaluating and iterating upon these candidates in bench-scale electrochemical analyses and performance tests in coin and pouch cell batteries will yield a dendrite-suppressing product to bring significant value to Zn-Air technology and other Zn-based battery markets. At its successful conclusion, this project will not only produce products for these markets, but it will also provide molecular design principles useful for the development of other metal-based battery additives, and promote the merits of novel additive development for the broader battery industry.