ZABCAT has developed an innovative, environmentally friendly electrocatalyst material based on transition-metal oxides with the goal of addressing durability issues in the cathodes of electrically rechargeable zinc-air batteries, which are crucial for clean energy storage.
Through the encapsulation of the catalyst within carbon nanotubes, ZABCAT has successfully demonstrated a straightforward and cost-effective synthetic approach for creating bifunctional electrocatalysts capable of facilitating both the oxygen reduction reaction and the oxygen evolution reaction. The advantage of the ZABCAT methodology lies in its easy scalability and compatibility with the large-scale deployment of a highly secure zinc-air battery technology due to its reduced cost. As a result, the ZABCAT methodology is well-suited to meet the energy storage demands associated with renewable sources.
The new class of electrocatalyst developed at ZABCAT, which reduces the reliance on metals like cobalt and nickel, has been scaled up and integrated into a bifunctional air electrode for testing in a cell prototype. This advancement has resulted in power density values that surpass those of the existing zinc-air technology. Before scaling the bifunctional air electrode, formulations based on the binder and the conductive material were optimized, and their electrochemical performance tested and validated at half-cell level. Catalyst mixtures were shown to have the best key performance values for both power density and reversibility. Preindustrial cell prototypes with consistently reproducible bifunctional air electrodes were subjected to reversibility tests in accordance with International Electrotechnical Commission standards (IEC 61427). Postmortem analysis showed that the prototype's operational span observed of two years was not limited by the scaled-up bifunctional electrode. ZABCAT´s advances bring us closer to sustainable and reliable energy solutions, aligning with our commitment to a greener future.
