Boosting seawater battery performance with wood waste-derived catalysts

Seawater batteries characterize the subsequent technology of vitality storage gadgets, able to effectively storing and discharging electrical energy derived from seawater. Key to their commercialization is the development of cost-effective catalyst supplies, a problem efficiently addressed by researchers at UNIST.

Professor Dong Woog Lee and his workforce within the College of Power and Chemical Engineering at UNIST have developed a high-performance catalyst for seawater batteries by integrating urea with wooden waste. This revolutionary catalyst reduces the overvoltage required for seawater cells and accelerates the electrochemical reactions, facilitating fast electrical energy discharge.

Their findings have been revealed within the Chemical Engineering Journal.

Historically, valuable metals like platinum have served as catalysts; nonetheless, these supplies are prohibitively costly.

The catalyst developed by Professor Lee’s analysis workforce leverages reasonably priced lignin and urea. Lignin, a by-product comprising 15 to 35% of wooden, is generated through the manufacturing of paper and biofuels. Urea, a substance ample in industrial wastewater, is wealthy in nitrogen.

By heating lignin to 800°C whereas concurrently reacting it with urea on the similar temperature, the analysis workforce succeeded in nitrogen doping each a part of the lignin construction, thereby making a high-performance catalyst. This nitrogen incorporation considerably reduces the vitality required for electrical energy discharge whereas substituting particular carbon atoms within the lignin matrix.

In efficiency checks carried out with the newly developed catalyst utilized to the electrodes of seawater cells, outcomes confirmed that its efficiency was similar to that of conventional platinum catalysts. Notably, the overvoltage was decrease than that of platinum (Pt/C) catalysts.

A decrease overvoltage interprets to the next proportion of chargeable vitality that may be successfully utilized throughout discharge. The utmost energy density achieved was 15.76 mW/cm²carefully approaching that of the platinum catalyst, which measured 16.15 mW/cm²—a vital indicator of discharge pace.

Professor Lee mentioned, “We have proposed a carbon-neutral approach that not only replaces expensive precious metal catalysts but also maximizes the value of biomass and industrial waste. This innovative catalyst could be applied in various energy storage systems, including metal-air batteries.”