A zinc-air battery capable of working in anaerobic conditions and fast environmental energy harvesting

Using copper oxide as the air electrode material, this work creatively solves the shortcoming that the operation of conventional Zn-air batteries must depend on oxygen, and develops a new Zn-air battery that can freely switch between air and oxygen-free conditions, exhibiting a voltage of 1.28 V when operating in zinc-air mode and 1.13 V as well as 0.79 V when operating in Zn-Cu mode. In addition, the cathode material also exhibits ultra-fast self-charging performance (~120 s) when the battery is switched from oxygen-free to air environment.

June 2022