Last modified: 2014-10-21
Abstract
One revolutionary example of rechargeable batteries is the birth of lithium ion batteries in the early 1990s. However, the safety from the combustible organic electrolytes is a serious and challenging problem in the case of large-scale applications such as energy storage in smart grids. As a result, it comes back to aqueous electrolyte again. However, it is neutral and green, and one example is aqueous rechargeable lithium batteries of super-fast charging performance and excellent cycling [1-3]. Recently, the energy density is markedly improved in comparison with that for lithium ion batteries due to the “cross-over” effect instead of the traditional overpotentials [4-6]. This effect will bring unpredicted promise for the new power sources since it can markedly increase the output voltage of aqueous batteries to above 3 V, much higher than the theoretical stable window of water, 1.23 V. The estimated practical energy density will be much higher than those for lithium ion batteries. This opens a new choice for smart grids and electric vehicles as a chemistry of post lithium ion batteries.
Keywords
References
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