R-012

Petr Mazúr

mazurp@vscht.cz

Premysl Richtr, David Graf, Jaromir Hnat, Martin Paidar, Jiri Charvat, Jaromír Pocedic, Petr Hauschwitz

University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czechia

Electrocatalysis of oxygen electrode reactions for more efficient and stable zinc-air flow battery

Ongoing decarbonization of energetics and mobility sectors emphasizes the needs for reliable, safe and environmentally energy storages for both mobile and stationary applications. The concept of flow battery offers several original features particularly interesting for grid stabilization applications. The zinc-air flow battery particularly provides cheap, non-toxic and non-explosive alternative to more matured vanadium-based system. However, both efficiency and durability needs to be improved to fully exploit the potential of the chemistry. In our contribution, the activities related to R&D of zinc-air flow battery are summarized with the main focus on electrocatalysis of oxygen reactions aiming for more efficient and stable battery operation. 

Development of efficient and stable 3D electrodes for oxygen evolution and reduction reactions was approached by several methods including electrochemically assisted precipitation of Ni-Co spinel catalysts onto suitable 3D Ni supports and hydrophobicity adjustment of the catalytic layer of the gas diffusion electrode.[1] The optimized Zn-air single-cell with the developed oxygen electrodes provides relatively high values of energy efficiency (45%) and stable mid-term cycling. Further approaches for efficiency enhancements will be presented incl. laser nano-structuring of Ni substrate and use of alternative catalysts. Based on the data obtained in the three-electrode cell arrangement, the motivation for development of bi-functional oxygen electrode will be emphasized.

Acknowledgments:

This works was supported by TAČR, program THÉTA2, project no. TK02030001 and by the project ""The Energy Conversion and Storage"", funded as project No. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004617 by Programme Johannes Amos Comenius, call Excellent Research.

1. Richtr, P., et al., Nickel-cobalt spinel-based oxygen evolution electrode for zinc-air flow battery. Journal of Energy Storage, 2025. 115: p. 115835.