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Accelerating electrolyte transport property measurements for beyond lithium-ion batteries
Howard, Alec Scott
Howard, Alec Scott
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2025
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2026-11-11
Abstract
In order to meet the United Nations sustainability goals, there must be advances in long-duration energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries are the predominate technology, but due to the high cost of lithium and long implementation duration, they are not currently an economically viable solution. Zinc is projected to have a lower implementation duration and cost than lithium-ion batteries and therefore represents a promising solution. The question then becomes, ”If zinc is a promising solution, why is it not already implemented?” The main challenge lies in the charging process. Current zinc battery technologies suffer from ion transport limitations that lead to dendrite formation during charging. These dendrites pose safety risks and hinder cycling stability because they can penetrate the separator and cause a short circuit. If zinc is to fulfill its promise, secondary cell zinc technology must be developed. Key to this, is identifying electrolytes with good transport properties. Currently there are separate tests to measure each transport property, and to measure all four transport properties at one concentration it takes over 3 days. This is a significant barrier to screening a wide array of electrolyte candidates and is the motivation for my research. I created a new method of measuring transport properties that reduces the time required from days to minutes. This method will enable quick screening of electrolytes to develop new battery technologies with the potential to revolutionize long-duration energy storage.
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