Researchers from the Technical University of Munich in Germany have developed new technology that can significantly expand the lifespan of zinc-ion batteries, Interesting Engineering reported.
The university said in a press release that the battery includes a porous organic polymer that can help it last several hundred thousand cycles instead of the regular lifespan of a few thousand cycles.
You don't need to understand what a "porous organic polymer" is to benefit from its existence, however. As we replace more of our dirty energy infrastructure with wind, solar, and other forms of clean, renewable energy, we will also need more and better battery technology in order to store that energy for future use.
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To that end, a new invention that makes batteries last hundreds of times longer is a great thing for the industry. Although clean energy is undoubtedly far more environmentally friendly than gas and oil, much of the pollution that the industry creates comes from producing batteries, which require rare metals that must be mined.
The technology to help the industry recycle these batteries and their components more effectively is coming along, but a battery that simply lasts (practically) forever without ever needing to be recycled is in theory the best solution of all.
"This is truly a spectacular research result," Roland Fischer, an inorganic and metal-organic chemistry professor at the Technical University of Munich, said.
"We have shown that the chemical approach developed by [lead author] Da Lei not only works but is also controllable. As fundamental researchers, we are primarily interested in new scientific principles — and here we have discovered one. … Now, it's up to engineers to take up the idea and develop appropriate production processes."
In other battery-related news, a Shanghai-based company reportedly recently achieved a battery that can last 16,000 cycles — a big accomplishment, but nothing in comparison to what the Technical University of Munich researchers have done, if their claims bear out.
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