As people extend marine research and exploration to greater depths, have you ever thought about how the exploration equipment can maintain a constant energy supply as traditional secondary batteries cannot meet the extreme requirements for deep-sea exploration?
The ideal answer is a self-powered energy conversion device. Dissolved-oxygen seawater batteries (SWBs) that generate electricity by reducing the dissolved oxygen are promising candidates, but the ultra-low oxygen concentration in deep sea limits the reaction kinetics.
A research group led by Prof. Yang Quan-Hong, Prof. Ling Guowei and Dr. Zhang Chen at Tianjin University reported to have developed a microwave-assisted strategy and produced a novel catalyst with unique oxygenophilic properties for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). It shows great potential for use as a catalyst in a SWB in lean-oxygen deep-sea environments as it exhibited much better ORR performance than a commercial Platinum catalyst when it was evaluated in both alkaline medium and artificial seawater.
The group also fabricated a SWB that has the potential to supply electricity stably in the deep-sea environment of over kilometers underwater.
“The new catalyst will be further tested in the extreme environment of deep sea,” said Dr. Zhan Chen, “Through our research, we hope to demonstrate the revolutionary application of future energy devices, andcontribute to the next-generation energy conversion systems suitable for deep-sea applications.”
The relevant research article was published as a cover article inAdvanced Energy Materials, an international journal in the field of Energy Materials. It was known that this achievement has been applied for national patent and international patent.
By Eva Yin
