Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

AQUEOUS BATTERIES

No need to reduce water

Nature Energy volume 5, page 355 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-0667-y (2020)

Owing to the non-flammability of aqueous electrolytes, aqueous batteries have safety advantages over non-aqueous counterparts. However, the stable operating voltage window of water is merely 1.23 V, beyond which water electrolysis takes place, leading to severe deterioration of electrode structures and battery performance. This intrinsic property of water significantly limits the energy density of aqueous batteries. Decreasing the water content by using highly salt-concentrated (typically larger than 20 mol kg–1) electrolytes is the most effective approach to expand the voltage window and thus to enhance the energy density, but high viscosity and high cost are the major drawbacks of such electrolytes. Now, Yi-Chun Lu and colleagues from the Chinese University of Hong Kong report that adding poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in conventional aqueous electrolytes substantially expands the stable operating voltage to 3.2 V, without having to increase the salt concentration.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Energy https://www.nature.com/natureenergy

    Changjun Zhang

Authors
  1. Changjun Zhang
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Changjun Zhang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, C. No need to reduce water. Nat Energy 5, 355 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0626-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0626-5

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing