Colloid energy storage series battery

Colloid electrolytes significantly prolong proton battery cycle life from just tens-of-hours to months. Properties, components, and their interactions of the MnO 2 colloids are disclosed via comprehensive analysis. The emerging proton electrochemistry offers opportunities for future energy storage of high capacity and rate.

The enhancements are attributed to improved anode stability, cathode efficiency and stabilized charge compensation in colloid electrolytes. Furthermore, the colloid electrolytes also show possibilities for applications in flow batteries.

Herein, a new chemistry is demonstrated to additionally form homogeneous and stable colloids in H 2 SO 4 (≥ 1.0 M). Application of colloid electrolytes in the emerging proton batteries results in significantly extended battery cycle life from tens-of-hours to months. 1. Introduction

Aqueous redox flow batteries (ARFBs) exhibit great potential for large-scale energy storage, but the cross-contamination, limited ion conductivity, and high costs of ion-exchange membranes restrict the wide application of ARFBs.

However, capacity loss and low Coulombic efficiency resulting from polyiodide cross-over hinder the grid-level battery performance. Here, we develop colloidal chemistry for iodine-starch catholytes, endowing enlarged-sized active materials by strong chemisorption-induced colloidal aggregation.

These results suggest stabilized charge compensation in colloid electrolytes, possibly due to the formed colloids (including the wrapping "clouds" shown in Fig. 1) at the electrode vicinity which can suppress further MnO 2 detachment (Fig. S25).