Science Daily August 2, 2022
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposed using calcium ions as an alternative to lithium-ions in batteries because of inexpensive, abundant, safe, and sustainable battery chemistry that uses calcium ions in an aqueous, water-based electrolyte. They demonstrated the battery using orthorhombic and trigonal polymorphs of molybdenum vanadium oxide (MoVO) as a host for calcium ions. As calcium ion is divalent, one ion insertion will deliver two electrons per ion during battery operation allowing for a highly efficient battery with reduced mass and volume of calcium ions. However, the higher ionic charge and the larger size of calcium ions relative to lithium makes it very challenging to insert calcium ions into the battery electrodes. They solved this by developing molybdenum vanadium oxides that contain large hexagonal and heptagonal shaped channels or tunnels that run through the material which facilitated rapid transport of ions…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ