Lignin as Polymer Electrolyte Precursor for Stable and Sustainable Potassium Batteries

Abstract

Potassium batteries show interesting peculiarities as large-scale energy storage systems and, in this scenario, the formulation of polymer electrolytes obtained from sustainable resources or waste-derived products represents a milestone activity. In this study, a lignin-based membrane is designed by crosslinking a pre-oxidized Kraft lignin matrix with an ethoxylated difunctional oligomer, leading to self-standing membranes that are able to incorporate solvated potassium salts. The in-depth electro-chemical characterization highlights a wide stability window (up to 4 V) and an ionic conductivity exceeding 10 À 3 S cm À 1 at ambient temperature. When potassium metal cell prototypes are assembled, the lignin-based electrolyte attains significant electrochemical performances, with an initial specific capacity of 168 mAh g À 1 at 0.05 A g À 1 and an excellent operation for more than 200 cycles, which is an unprecedented outcome for biosourced systems in potassium batteries.

The insensitive cation effect on a single atom Ni catalyst allows selective electrochemical conversion of captured CO2 in universal media

“…[1][2][3] In order to reduce carbon emission, the establishment of a renewableenergy grid combining next-generation energy conversion and storage technologies including photovoltaic devices, fuel cells, electrolyzers, batteries, and supercapacitors is of prime importance. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Together, the development of efficient carbon capture and utilization (CCU) processes has been recognized as one of the most urgent technologies for sustainable societies and electrochemical CO 2 conversion is one of the candidate technologies. 11,12 However, most of the electrochemical CO 2 reduction reactions (CO 2 RRs) have been researched with pure CO 2 gas feeding assuming that CO 2 is captured and sequestrated for the utilization process, which is cost-and energy-inefficient.…”

Concepts and Emerging Trends for Structural Battery Electrolytes

“…Over the years, material development to attain stable biopolymeric systems with improved electrochemical and mechanical performances has been explored [81] . Biopolymers such as cellulose and its derivatives, lignin, starch, algal, dextran (DN), chitin/chitosan, were profoundly explored [41,82–86] . By itself, these green materials show renewability, biodegradability, abundance and are low in cost.…”

Bio‐Based Solid Electrolytes Bearing Cyclic Carbonates for Solid‐State Lithium Metal Batteries

“…Those gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) exhibited decent conductivity of 10 À 3 S cm À 1 and > 4 V stability window with K + . [29] However, it is still early to compare the market reality of other metal-ion batteries to lithium-based ones due to insufficient understanding of those new technologies. All-solidstate batteries based on lithium are thus still a strong bet for high energy and power density to fulfil immediate future needs toward a clean energy path.…”

“…Recently, Bella and co‐workers designed lignin‐based membranes by crosslinking of a pre‐oxidized Kraft lignin matrix with an ethoxylated difunctional oligomer. Those gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) exhibited decent conductivity of 10 −3 S cm −1 and >4 V stability window with K + [29] . However, it is still early to compare the market reality of other metal‐ion batteries to lithium‐based ones due to insufficient understanding of those new technologies.…”