Rechargeable Aqueous Batteries Based on Available Resources: Investigation and Development towards Efficient Battery Performance

Batteries employing water based electrolytes enable extremely low manufacturing costs and are inherently safer than Li-ion batteries. Batteries based on zinc, manganese dioxide, iron, and air have high energy relevancy, are not resource restricted, and can contribute to large scale energy storage solutions. Zinc has a rich history as electrode material for primary alkaline Zn–MnO 2 batteries. Historically, its use in secondary batteries has been limited because of morphological uncertainties and passivation effects that may lead to cell failure. Manganese dioxide electrodes are ineffective as rechargeable electrodes because of failure mechanisms associated with phase transformations during cycling. The irreversibility of manganese dioxide is strongly correlated to the formation of the electrochemically inactive spinel, Mn 3 O 4 /ZnMn 2 O 4 . The development of the iron electrode for Fe–air batteries was initiated in late the 1960s and these batteries still suffer from charging inefficiency, due to the unwanted hydrogen evolution reaction. Meanwhile, the air electrode is limited in long-term operation because of the sluggish oxygen evolution and reduction kinetics. These limitations of the Fe–air battery yield poor overall efficiencies, which bring vast energy losses upon cycling. Herein, the limitations described above were countered for rechargeable Zn–MnO 2 and Fe–air batteries by synthesizing electrode materials and modifying electrolyte compositions. The electrolyte mixture of 1 M KOH + 3 M LiOH for rechargeable alkaline Zn–MnO 2 batteries limited the formation of the inactive spinels and improved their cycle life significantly. Further, the formation of the inactive spinels was overcome in mildly acidic electrolytes containing 2 M ZnSO 4 , enabling the cells to cycle reversibly at lower pH via a distinctive reaction mechanism. The iron electrodes were improved with the addition of stannate, which suppressed hydrogen evolution. Furthermore, optimal charge protocols of the iron electrodes were identified to minimize the hydrogen evolution rate. On the air electrode, the synthesized NiCo 2 O 4 showed excellent bifunctional catalytic activity for oxygen evolution and reduction, and was incorporated to a flow assisted rechargeable Fe–air battery, in order to prove the practicability of this technology. Studies of the electrode materials on the micro, macro, nano, and atomic scales were carried out to increase the understanding of the nature of and interact