Flowing Zinc Slurry Battery Retains 81% Capacity After 5,500 Cycles in Landmark Durability Test

Flowing Zinc Slurry Battery Retains 81% Capacity After 5,500 Cycles

Chinese researchers have developed a flowing zinc slurry battery capable of continuous operation for up to 5,128 hours, offering a new long-duration energy storage solution for renewable energy systems.

The battery replaces conventional fixed zinc electrodes with a slurry of zinc nanoparticles suspended in a conductive liquid. By keeping the active material in continuous circulation, this design overcomes longstanding technical barriers that have historically limited zinc-based flow batteries.

Developed jointly by researchers at Fudan University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the battery is designed to store surplus electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines, then release it when renewable energy output drops.

In laboratory testing, the system achieved a Coulombic efficiency of 99.94%. A zinc-manganese dioxide battery built on the same architecture retained 81.1% of its original capacity after 5,500 charge-discharge cycles — demonstrating exceptional durability.

Rethinking Zinc Energy Storage

Conventional flow batteries typically store energy by pumping liquid electrolytes through electrochemical cells. This new design goes further by transforming zinc itself into a flowable energy carrier, rather than relying on a solid zinc electrode.

"Our research grew from a long-standing interest in improving the reversibility of zinc metal electrodes through electrolyte and interface engineering," corresponding author Fei Wang told Tech Xplore.

"During a visit to a zinc electrolytic smelting plant, I was inspired by the industrial process of converting zinc ions (Zn²⁺) into metallic zinc. It struck me that this electron-gaining process could potentially be applied directly to energy storage."

The battery integrates nanoscale zinc particles, hollow carbon scaffolds, and a ligand-controlled electrolyte. These components work in concert to prevent zinc particle agglomeration while maintaining stable electrochemical reactions through repeated charge and discharge cycles.

The researchers note that the flow-based architecture decouples energy storage capacity from power output, making the system more readily scalable for long-duration storage applications without requiring a redesign of the electrochemical cell itself.

Engineered for Renewable Energy

Unlike conventional zinc batteries that depend on fixed electrodes, the slurry circulates continuously between a storage tank and the battery cell, while zinc reversibly transitions between its metallic and ionic states.

"The key advantage of this design is that it transforms zinc from a static electrode into a dynamic energy carrier," Wang said.

The research team found that combining the flow architecture with ligand-controlled interfacial chemistry effectively addressed the critical challenges that have long held back zinc slurry systems — including particle aggregation, reaction instability, and interfacial degradation.

The researchers believe the technology could ultimately support large-scale storage of electricity generated by intermittent renewable sources such as solar farms and wind parks. By increasing the volume of slurry in external storage tanks, energy capacity can be scaled up without significantly altering the core electrochemical system.

"Our future research will focus on advancing the flowing zinc slurry concept from laboratory-scale proof of concept to practically deployable long-duration energy storage systems," Wang said.

The team also plans to optimize slurry chemistry, improve system integration, and explore whether similar flowable metallic energy carriers can be developed beyond zinc-based systems.

The study has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Energy.

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