China’s Research Team Develops New Prototype Hydride-Ion Battery
A team led by researchers Chen Ping, Cao Hujun, and Zhang Weijin from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has recently made significant progress in the development and application of hydride-ion conductors, successfully developing a new prototype hydride-ion battery. The related findings were published in the prestigious academic journal Nature on September 17.
Hydride-ion batteries represent a全新的 energy storage technology path and are expected to play an important role in large-scale energy storage, hydrogen storage, portable power sources, and special power applications.
Similar to the widely used lithium-ion batteries, hydride-ion batteries store and release energy through the movement of hydride ions. However, due to the lack of electrolyte materials that simultaneously meet the requirements of high ionic conductivity, low electronic conductivity, excellent thermal and electrochemical stability, and good compatibility with electrode materials, hydride-ion batteries had previously remained at the conceptual stage.
In 2018, the research team initiated studies on hydride-ion conduction and proposed a "lattice distortion to suppress electronic conductivity" strategy in 2023, developing a room-temperature ultrafast hydride-ion conductor. Based on this, the team coated less stable cerium trihydride with a thin layer of low electronic conductivity and highly stable barium hydride, forming a novel core-shell structured complex hydride. This material exhibits rapid hydride-ion conduction at room temperature, along with excellent thermal and electrochemical stability, making it an ideal electrolyte material.
Using the above-mentioned new hydride-ion electrolyte material, the team assembled a new prototype hydride-ion battery with classic hydrogen storage material sodium aluminum hydride as the cathode and hydrogen-poor cerium dihydride as the anode. This achievement marks a leap from conceptual principle to experimental verification of hydride-ion batteries by Chinese researchers.
