W. Choi
University of North Texas,
United States
Keywords: batteries, energy storage, CO2 conversion
Summary:
Climate change is a global phenomenon that must be addressed to avoid major environmental consequences due to the nonrenewable property of fossil fuels and excessive CO2 emissions. Very recently, Li-CO2 battery with a theoretical energy density of 1,876 Wh kg-1 has been attracted as a promising energy storage strategy and as an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by CO2 reduction and the formation of discharge product Li2CO3. However, scarcity of material resource, high cost, as well as safety concerns of Li, create obstacles for practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate alternative rechargeable metal-CO2 batteries that is composed of air-stable metals (anode) and catalysts deposited carbon (cathode). Nano catalysts are crucial to successful acceleration of reaction kinetics of metal-ions during charge and discharge with minimum overpotential of the cell. Our air-stable metal-CO2 battery can effectively fix CO2 greenhouse gas and convert it into electrical energy effectively. This presentation provides critical perspectives on the development of metal-CO2 batteries as well as a description of current issues and challenges associated with anode, catalysts, and electrolyte for metal-CO2 batteries. Furthermore, the development and deployment of materials to overcome these challenges of metal-CO2 batteries are discussed briefly.