Chinese scientists use copper ions to charge high-energy magnesium batteries 200 times at 80% capacity

Researchers from the Qingdao Institute of BioEnergy and Process (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have taken another step closer to creating feasible high-energy output magnesium batteries.The study could replace lithium in electric vehicle batteries with magnesium, a copper-rich charge carrier, a material extremely highly conductive to allow current to flow freely and output high energy.

On Earth, according to the U. S. Geological Survey (United States Geological Survey), there has much more magnesium than lithium.Magnesium batteries can reduce costs because of their rich magnesium reserves.Magnesium sells for about $5,000 a ton, about half the amount of lithium.In addition, magnesium batteries provide higher energy and power density compared to lithium batteries, even at room temperature.Finally, because magnesium is not a material that is easy to form dendrites and causes the battery internal structure failure, it is also safer to avoid the risk of battery explosion and fire.

However, the use of magnesium in cathodes and electrolytes has been a obstacle to the development of magnesium batteries.Magnesium reacts with the electrolyte into a chloride, which causes lower battery performance, an inability to store and release large amounts of energy, and is commercially uncompetitive.So Chinese scientists have created a high-performance magnesium battery that uses copper ions as a charge carrier.

During charging, the diffusion of a high density of magnesium ions in the electrolyte becomes slower.Moreover, the chemical bond between magnesium and anions is difficult to break, resulting in a particularly poor charge and discharge cycle.To solve this problem, the researchers used another charge carrier in the cathode: copper, which can be dissolved in the electrolyte, making the electrolyte consists of magnesium, copper ion, and boron anion (BCM).

When the magnesium battery discharges, the copper ions dissolve in the electrolyte and form a metallic copper coating on the electrode.Copper has high conductivity so that the current can flow freely, yielding high energy.

In the laboratory, the magnesium / copper battery maintained 80% original capacity after 200 charge and discharge cycles, showing good performance.After that, commercial lithium-ion batteries will lose more than 20% of their original capacity after 1,000 charge and discharge cycles.While magnesium / copper batteries are not commercially feasible, they open the way to develop batteries that can compete with lithium batteries.Professor CUI Guanglei, head of the research, said, " In the next two years, we want to bring the battery cycle to 1,000 milestones in the charge and discharge.In the next step, we will design a flexible battery pack, so the first need to create a gel copper ion electrolyte solution.”

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