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.

STTR 第一阶段项目将消除利用安全、经济的锌和空气制造持久电池的最关键障碍。美国的锌资源丰富，锌空气电池的储存能量是目前锂离子电池的五倍以上，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自然形成锋利的锌空气电池。充电期间称为树突的针。随着时间的推移，这些枝晶会变得足够大，从而损坏电池的内部工作原理，从而降低效率和寿命。该项目将借鉴邻近领域电镀行业的原理来创造新的有机化学品，在充电过程中寻找并阻止电池内枝晶的生长。化学添加剂在控制金属表面形状的电镀方面有着悠久的历史，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变得更便宜、更耐用，最终取代现有的电池技术，实现更远距离的电动汽车，减轻士兵的设备重量，为经济贡献有价值的技术，并帮助维持美国的地位。美国作为储能技术的领导者。该 STTR 第一阶段项目将确定优雅且经济地抑制锌枝晶形成所需的关键化学物质，从而缓解使锌空气电池技术全面商业化复杂化的最重大挑战之一。该项目避开了应用目录中现有化学品的既定策略，将从 PI 为电镀行业类似环境设计添加剂的经验中汲取灵感，引入新颖的专有有机化学物质，直接解决枝晶瓶颈问题。关键的技术挑战将是优化分子特征，以同时提供有效的枝晶抑制和低电压损耗。将创建一系列广泛的分子，将与锌的强相互作用、适度的极化、低成本和直接的可扩展性结合起来。在纽扣电池和软包电池的小规模电化学分析和性能测试中评估和迭代这些候选产品，将产生一种枝晶抑制产品，为锌空气技术和其他锌基电池市场带来巨大价值。该项目的成功结束后，不仅将为这些市场生产产品，还将提供可用于开发其他金属电池添加剂的分子设计原理，并为更广泛的电池行业推广新型添加剂开发的优点。