The Czechs developed a revolutionary type of battery. It is cheap to produce, does not explode and does not burn

Czech scientists have managed to invent a revolutionary type of battery that is safer, cheaper and offers higher capacity than popular Li-ion batteries. The novelty was brought by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

It will not work without salt

A team of scientists from the Institute of Physics of the ASCR and the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the ASCR was inspired by more than 130 years of knowledge about the influence of a special chaotropic salt on the properties of aqueous solutions in developing a new high-voltage battery. They developed a water faucet that uses salt water, zinc and graphite. It also includes a non-flammable electrolyte, which is not only more conductive, but also, as the name suggests, non-flammable. This means that the new type of battery cannot ignite or explode.

“Water batteries have been introduced before, but their expansion was hampered by relatively low capacity and voltage. Our team managed to solve this problem by adding a large amount of chaotropic zinc perchlorate salt to the water solution, ”explains Jiří Červenka, team leader.

Its average capacity is around 45 mAh / g, which is comparable to commercially available nickel-metal hydride batteries. In terms of service life, it lasts up to 500 charging cycles. The advantage of the new technology is also the low production costs that scientists have achieved by using extremely cheap and recyclable materials.

Technology will find its use, for example, in the field of solar energy production, where finding a suitable type of battery to store the electricity produced has always been a challenge. Although there are a number of suitable batteries on the market, most of them are not suitable for high-capacity electricity storage due to the high price.