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Message: Zinc-Manganese oxide batteries

 

info from another site....

 

Alkaline batteries - your non-rechargeable AA's etc - are already zinc/manganese. What this piece talks about is zinc/mangnese batteries being rechargeable and replacing the lead/acid currently being used in the automotive industry for starting lighting etc.


 
Researchers have been studying rechargeable zinc-manganese batteries since the late 1990s. There has long been interest around rechargeable zinc-manganese batteries because both its components, zinc and manganese, are relatively cheap, the battery can have an energy density similar to lead-acid batteries and are an inexpensive, safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
 
This new battery could become a better, cost-effective, environment friendlier alternative for storing renewable energy and supporting the power grid than current lead-acid battery and lithium-ion cobalt battery technologies. Unfortunately rechargeable zinc-manganese batteries usually stop working after just a few charges.
 
That’s because zinc-manganese oxide batteries lose significant storage capacity after just a few cycles. This happens because manganese from the battery's positive electrode begins to sluff off, making the battery's active material inaccessible for energy storage. After some manganese dissolves into the electrolyte the battery gradually stabilizes and the storage capacity levels out at a much lower level.
 
A team based at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory  found by increasing the electrolyte's initial manganese concentration the rate of manganese dissolution could be slowed down. The next test battery was able to reach a storage capacity of 285 milli Ampere-hours per gram of manganese oxide over 5,000 cycles, while retaining 92 percent of its initial storage capacity. That’s impressive.
 
Today’s Li-ion batteries do have a high energy density, but it’s expensive to
scale up. Lead-acid batteries are low-cost aqueous (containing water, typically as a solvent or medium) systems and are much easier to scale up.
 
Because the use of lead in batteries raises environmental concerns and because of the lower energy density and limited life span of these batteries there is market opportunity - lead-acid batteries still account for more than half of the global battery market.
 
With the increasing popularity of electric and hybrid cars some of the replacement market for lead acid automotive starting, lighting, and ignition market will disappear while uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications  for zinc-manganese batteries increase. 

 

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