The world is swiftly shifting toward renewable energy, but challenges remain. Solar power is unavailable at night, and wind energy fluctuates unpredictably. To address these gaps, new technologies are needed to store excess energy from the grid when production is high and release it during times of shortage.
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries play a crucial role in everyday life, powering devices from smartphones to electric vehicles. However, they rely on limited resources like lithium, nickel, and cobalt, raising concerns about sustainability and cost.
Xiaowei Teng, the James H. Manning Professor in Chemical Engineering at WPI, is leading a team to explore new battery technologies for grid energy storage. The team’s recent results, published in the European scientific journal ChemSusChem, suggest that iron, when treated with the electrolyte additive silicate, could create a high-performance alkaline battery anode.
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