UNSW develops novel eco-friendly, high-performance organic battery that could be key to future

A team of scientists from the University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW Sydney) have developed an organic material capable of storing protons, allowing them to use it in the creation of a lab-based rechargeable proton battery.

“We have developed a novel, high-capacity small-molecule material for proton storage,” said Professor Chuan Zhao who, along with PhD candidate Sicheng Wu, developed the organic material in collaboration with UNSW Engineering and Australian Synchrotron (ANSTO).

“Using this material, we successfully built an all-organic proton battery that is effective at both room temperature and sub-zero freezing temperatures.”

Though the concept and development of proton batteries is still in its infancy, researchers see significant potential in the technology as a next-generation energy storage solution, especially for addressing limitations inherent in the current dominant battery technology – lithium-ion.

Simply put, batteries store chemical energy based on their specific chemistry: For example, lithium-ion batteries create an electric charge by transferring lithium ions between the anode and cathode.

However, many battery technologies such as lithium-ion come with a number of downsides, including their reliance on rare earth materials, difficulty recycling, and reliance on huge amounts of water and energy to produce.

“Lithium-ion batteries are already becoming a dominant product in energy storage applications, but they have a lot of limitations,” said Sicheng Wu, a PhD candidate from the UNSW Sydney School of Chemistry. 

“Lithium is a finite resource that is not evenly distributed on earth, so some countries may not have access to low-cost lithium sources. Lithium batteries also have very big challenge regarding fast-charging applications, safety, and they have low efficiency in cold temperature.”  

Proton batteries, on the other hand, are capable of delivering higher energy and power density, and are relatively inexpensive to produce. They also produce zero carbon emissions and are fast charging.

As Sicheng Wu points out, though, “current electrode materials used for proton batteries, some of which are made from organic materials, and others from metals, are heavy and still very high cost.” 

That’s where the potential of their new organic material comes in. The material – tetraamino-benzoquinone (TABQ) – is a modification of the tetrachloro-benzoquinone (TCBQ), both of which were used to create the anode and cathode respectively for the proton battery.

The resulting all-organic lab-based battery offered a long cycle life – up to 3,500 full charge/discharge cycles – high capacity, and good performance even in cold conditions. The battery was also safer than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

“The electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is made of lithium salt, a solvent which is flammable and therefore is a big concern,” said Professor Zhao.

“In our case, we have both electrodes made of organic molecules, and in between we have the water solution, making our prototype battery lightweight, safe and affordable.”

At the moment, according to Professor Zhao, their TABQ material is “not necessarily cheap to produce at the moment,” but added that “because it’s made of abundant light elements, it will be easy and affordable to eventually scale up.”

But the potential is huge, according to the scientists, who believe that organic proton batteries will be capable of enhancing the usage of renewable energy.