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

STTR 第一阶段：提高锌空气电池性能的有机添加剂

• 批准号: 1746210
• 负责人: Onas Bolton
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Octet Scientific, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1746210&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Organic; Additives; Improve

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.

该STTR I期项目将消除最关键的障碍，从安全，经济的锌和空气中制造持久的电池。在美国，锌很丰富，锌空气电池有可能容纳当前锂离子电池的五倍以上，但是制造可充电锌空气电池的主要挑战是电池内部的锌自然形成锋利的锌在充电过程中称为树突的针头。随着时间的流逝，这些树突可以生长足够大以损害电池的内部工作，从而降低效率和寿命。该项目将从相邻领域的电镀行业借用原则，以创建新的有机化学品，这些化学物质将在充电期间寻找并停止电池内的树突增长。化学添加剂在电镀方面具有悠久的历史，用于控制金属表面的形状，并且相同的原理可以适用于此处设计的添加剂，以控制电池充电期间的锌生长。这项新技术将使锌空气电池更便宜，更持久，以最终取代现有的电池技术，使更长的电动汽车能够减轻士兵的设备重量，为经济贡献有价值的技术，并帮助维持其作用美国作为储能技术领域的领导者。该STTR I阶段项目将确定优雅和经济抑制锌树突形成所需的关键化学反应，从而减轻了ZN空气电池技术的全部商业出现，这是最重要的挑战之一。该项目避免采用目录中现有化学物质的既定策略，将从PI的经验中获得灵感，该体验为电镀行业的类似环境设计添加剂，以引入新颖的专有有机化学，以直接解决Dendrite瓶颈。主要的技术挑战将是优化分子特征，以同时提供有效的树突抑制和低压损耗。将创建一系列广泛的分子，以将强烈的相互作用与锌，适度的极化，低成本和直接可扩展性结合在一起。在台式和小袋电池电池中的台式电化学分析和性能测试中，评估和迭代这些候选者将产生持甲状腺抑制的产品，从而为Zn-Air技术和其他基于ZN的电池市场带来巨大的价值。在成功的结论中，该项目不仅将为这些市场生产产品，而且还将提供分子设计原理，可用于开发其他基于金属的电池添加剂，并促进更广泛的电池行业的新型添加剂开发的优点。