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Designing modern aqueous batteries

Nature Reviews Materials volume 8, pages 109–122 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

In the pursuit of more reliable and affordable energy storage solutions, interest in batteries powered by water-based electrolytes is surging. Today’s commercial aqueous batteries lack the energy density and cycle life required to compete in the fast-growing transportation and grid storage sectors, but this will change as new materials and cell design strategies are developed. Many of the constraints of traditional aqueous batteries have been alleviated by innovations such as selective membranes, lean-water electrolytes and new types of electrode reactions. As a result, an unprecedentedly broad range of electrode chemistries may be paired in previously impossible ways via modular cell designs to achieve performance metrics unattainable by traditional aqueous batteries. These innovations, however, change the properties for which aqueous batteries are traditionally known, and may result in compromises. This Review starts by examining the historical evolution of aqueous batteries, summarizing their essential merits and limitations. It then analyses how modern chemistries and cell designs may further strengthen the merits of aqueous batteries and address their limits while sometimes compromising prior merits, providing a holistic and critical overview of modern aqueous battery design.

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Fig. 1: Timeline for the development of aqueous batteries and of the materials used to modernize them.
Fig. 2: Oxygen cycle in sealed aqueous batteries.
Fig. 3: Electrochemical stability window of aqueous electrolytes.
Fig. 4: Types of electrode chemistries in aqueous batteries.
Fig. 5: Energy metrics for electrode reactions in aqueous electrolytes.
Fig. 6: Configurations of aqueous batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the TcSUH funding.

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  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Yanliang Liang & Yan Yao

  2. Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Yanliang Liang & Yan Yao

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Liang, Y., Yao, Y. Designing modern aqueous batteries. Nat Rev Mater 8, 109–122 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00511-3

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