Battery breakthrough could supercharge transition to renewable energy

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Researchers say they have discovered a way to make a highly efficient form of battery cheap enough to be commercially viable on a massive scale, which they claim could transform renewable energy. Zinc-air batteries have high energy densities, making them popular in small devices like hearing aids, but they hold huge potential for much larger applications like grid-scale energy storage for renewable projects. “Rechargeable metal–air batteries are promising power sources, especially zinc-air batteries, which offer high theoretical energy densities, environmental friendliness, and cost effectiveness,” said Huanxin Li, a research fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. “Among various non-noble catalysts, metal-nitrogen-carbon nanomaterials have attracted particular attention due to their low price, abundant reserves, excellent electrochemical activity and high stability,” The battery breakthrough was detailed in a study, titled ‘Fe-Co-Ni ternary single-atom electrocatalyst and stable quasi-solid-electrolyte enabling high-efficiency zinc-air batteries’, which was published in the scientific journal Nano Research Energy.