According to the Hindu News on August 10, 2019, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras used low-carbon steel as the anode to create a rechargeable iron-ion battery that can store electricity and cost performance. Are higher. Related research results were published in the "Chemical News" magazine on August 2. The iron-ion battery manufactured by the research team led by Professor Sama (Ramaprabhu Sundara) of the Faculty of Physics of the School can be charged and discharged for 150 cycles. At the end of 50 charge-discharge cycles, the battery maintains 54% capacity, showing good stability. Under controlled conditions, iron-ion batteries can extract 220 Wh (watt hours) of energy per kilogram, which is 55-60% of the performance of lithium-ion batteries. The energy density of lithium ion batteries is about 350 Wh / kg. The battery can also be cycled at high current density, which can extract energy from the battery faster. In pure iron, iron ions cannot be easily removed from the anode and reinjected into the battery, but the small amount of carbon present in low-carbon steel facilitates this process. Iron is more stable during charging, so it can prevent battery short circuit. Compared with popular lithium metal batteries, iron-ion batteries can reduce costs and be safer. In iron ion batteries, vanadium pentoxide is used as the cathode. Vanadium pentoxide is a layered structure with a large space between layers, which allows iron ions to easily enter and bind to the layers of the cathode, and is easily disassembled and moved back to the anode. Vanadium pentoxide has been used as the cathode of multivalent ion batteries. In addition, the research team used a different electrolyte-an ether-based electrolyte containing dissolved iron perchlorate. They tried different electrolytes, including traditional electrolytes and combinations of different electrolytes, but ether-based solvents containing iron perchlorate were the best electrolytes. Ferric perchlorate behaves like an ion conducting medium between the positive and negative electrodes. The next focus of the team is to further improve the performance of iron-ion batteries. Since the electrolyte cannot be changed, researchers are trying different cathode materials. SUN YAT INDUSTRY LIMITED , https://www.ernte-eu.com