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1 PublicationMembrane-free alkali metal - iodide battery with a molten salt
Lee, J.; Monrrabal Marquez, G.; Sarma, M.; Lappan, T.; Hofstettet, Y. J.; Trtik, P.; Landgraf, S.; Ding, W.; Kumar, S.; Vaynzof, Y.; Weber, N.; Weier, T.
Abstract
Batteries with liquid metal electrodes are attractive candidates for sustainable
energy storage applications due to low manufacturing cost as well as high recyclability. For
broad applications, these batteries should be developed for lower operating temperature,
higher cell voltage, and membrane-free cell configuration. Here, we demonstrate a new type
of membrane-free electrochemical energy storage system relying on liquid alkali metals and
iodide. As a proof-of-concept study, membrane-free alkali metal-iodide (A-AI) batteries were
constructed by a facile cell assembly introducing current collectors, LiI-LiCl-KI-CsI salt mixture,
and an insulator without relying on solid-state mediums for separating electrolytes. For the
initial assembly, no active electrode materials were required since they can be naturally
formed during battery operation. Despite the unoptimized cell construction, the membrane-
free A-AI batteries showed promising electrochemical performance such as voltage efficiency
of ca. 40 % at 500 mA/cm2, maximum specific energy of 34.2 Wh/kg with an energy efficiency
of 59 % for a charging/discharging period of 5.8 h and reliable stability for 250 cycles. Even
without ion-selective membranes, we observed a relatively low self-discharge rate of
3.56 mA/cm2, which implies the possibility of an iodine-concentrated layer at the bottom of
the cell. This was further supported by post-mortem analyses using neutron radiography.
Additionally, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy was performed to identify the changes in the
iodine concentration in the cell.
Keywords: liquid metal batteries; alkali metal-iodide batteries; liquid metal electrodes; low-temperature molten salt; membrane-free energy storage; neutron radiography
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Data publication: Membrane-free alkali metal-iodide battery with a molten salt
ROBIS: 36678 HZDR-primary research data are used by this (Id 34550) publication
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Energy Technology 11(2023)7, 2300051
DOI: 10.1002/ente.202300051
Cited 1 times in Scopus
Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-34550