A study of electrolytes for rechargeable zinc-metal batteries
| dc.contributor.author | Engblom, Alexander | |
| dc.contributor.department | Chalmers tekniska högskola / Institutionen för fysik | sv |
| dc.contributor.examiner | Matic, Aleksandar | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Xiong, Shizhao | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-06-20T13:16:19Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-06-20T13:16:19Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022 | sv |
| dc.date.submitted | 2022 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Today batteries can be found in a large variety of products and the use of batteries increases every year. However, current battery technologies are approaching their limit and will likely struggle to keep up with future demands. Due to this, battery technology must take a leap forward and explore new chemistries and concepts. One promising candidate for this is the zinc-metal battery, which is made out of more environmentally friendly and safer materials and could offer high energy density. However, the disadvantage of zinc-metal batteries is their short cycle life which is caused by the growth of zinc dendrites, inducing short circuiting. There have been several approaches to suppress the growth of zinc dendrites and electrolyte design is one of the most promising approaches. In this project electrolyte design, including salt concentration and exploration of additives, was studied with the aim to stabilize the zinc anode in a zinc-metal battery. The salt chosen was zinc sulfate heptahydrate, which was added at different concentration to water to create aqueous electrolytes. Their physical properties such as ion conductivity, viscosity, density, and their infrared and Raman spectrum were then measured. The effect of salt concentration on the stability and Coulombic efficiency of coin cells were also investigated. To explore the effects of additives sulfated cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were added to the electrolyte and the characterization was performed once again on these new electrolytes. How the salt concentration and the additives affected the zinc deposition was studied through the use of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of this project show that a molar ratio of water and zinc ions between 25:1-50:1 is the most suitable for the stability and Coulombic efficiency of coin cells. The additives did not affect the physical properties of the electrolyte notably, apart from the viscosity. However, they did affect the electrochemical performance, CNC improved the Coulombic efficiency and CMC improved the stability. The SEM images showed that the salt concentration and the additives do affect the morphology of the deposited zinc. | sv |
| dc.identifier.coursecode | TIFX05 | sv |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/304816 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | sv |
| dc.setspec.uppsok | PhysicsChemistryMaths | |
| dc.title | A study of electrolytes for rechargeable zinc-metal batteries | sv |
| dc.type.degree | Examensarbete för masterexamen | sv |
| dc.type.uppsok | H |