IIT Researchers Develop World's First Rechargeable Iron Ion Battery

Researchers at the Indian Found of Technology, Madras (IIT-Yard) have developed a rechargeable bombardment that uses iron ion instead of lithium, which has largely replaced Nickel-Cadmium (NiCad) as the popular choice for rechargeable batteries worldwide. According to a postal service on the official IIT-G website, the new technology uses an anode fabricated out of low-carbon steel, a cathode built with vanadium pentoxide, and fe chlorate as electrolyte.

According to the enquiry team, iron ion batteries will non merely be more than cost constructive than the existing lithium ion technology, but should also be significantly safer and more stable, because iron doesn't produce dendrites, thereby preventing short-circuits while discharging electricity. Batteries made with the new technology will too offer slightly amend storage capacity, said the researchers.

The team, comprising of Dr. S.Ramaprabhu, Ms. Ajay Piriya V.South. and Ms. Sai Smruti Samantaray from the institute's Physics department, further claimed that using iron instead of lithium will bring other benefits, thanks to its favorable physical and chemical properties. "Compared to other metals, atomic number 26 is cheaper, has a smaller ionic radius and favorable redox potential. Since these benefits are overlooked, the potential use of iron in rechargeable metallic ion battery has not been realized however", said the team.

Yet, fe ion batteries suffer from a few problems that might still prevent the technology from replacing lithium ion in rechargeable batteries. Biggest of them is that they are simply capable of going through most 150 cycles of charging and discharging, which is several times less than that of lithium ion units. Energy density is another problem expanse, equally they're currently able to reach only effectually 220 Wh/kilo, which is way less than the 350 Wh/kilo of free energy density for lithium-ion batteries.

Featured image Courtesy: IIT-1000