Major:
Chemistry
University:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Mentor(s):
Brian Evanko
Faculty Sponsor(s):
Galen D. Stucky
Faculty Sponsor's Department(s):
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Project Title:
Pouch Cells for Zinc-Bromine Batteries
Project Description:
Zinc-bromine batteries have drawn a great amount of interest for their potential applications in grid scale energy
storage due to their high cycling stability and energy efficiency. Bromide is an attractive candidate for the oxidation
half reaction due to its oxidation potential just within the potential window for aqueous electrochemical cells,
however, halide ions are corrosive to metals. In this work, a novel pouch cell design using conductive polyethylene
as current collector, structural support, and seal is reported. This pouch design seeks to overcome the problems
associated with bromide and tribromide ions while maintaining a simple cell design with, good cycling stability,
coulombic efficiency of 95%, and energy efficiency of 90%.