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Thursday, June 15, 2017

Rechargeable aluminium-air coin cell could boost embedded designs

A researcher at Fuji Pigment in Japan has developed a rechargeable coin cell battery using aluminium and air rather than materials such as lithium and is looking to commercialise the technology.

The key here is that aluminium–air batteries have a theoretical capacity of 8100 Wh/Kg, 40 times greater than lithium-ion at 160–200 Wh/Kg.

However, the batteries generate nasty residual chemicals that need to be disposed of. So Dr Ryohei Mori at Fuji Pigment developed a rechargeable aluminium–air battery using ionic-liquid-based electrolytes and non-oxide ceramic materials such as titanium carbide or titanium nitride for the air cathode. This has reduced the generation of by-products at the anode and at the air cathode so much that the technology can be used as a rechargeable cell.

Mori has built a standard CR2032-sized aluminium–air battery using these materials that gives a capacity of least 1200 mAh/g, and this is expected to considerably increase with further optimisation. This would allow systems to run significantly longer as current CR2032 3V lithium rechargeable cells have a capacity of around 65 mAh.

The company, which develops materials rather than products, is now looking for companies, research institutes, and universities to work on the aluminium–air batteries for commercialisation.

Contact details are at Rechargeable alumium-air coin cell battery developer looks for collaborators | EETE Power Management

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