Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The batteries that power untethered underwater vehicles (UUVs) serve a single purpose: to provide energy to electronics and motors; the more energy required, the bigger the robot must be to accommodate space for more energy storage. By choosing batteries composed primarily of liquid media [e.g., redox flow batteries (RFBs)], the increased weight can be better distributed for improved capacity with reduced inertial moment. Here, we formed an RFB into the shape of a jellyfish, using two redox chemistries and architectures: (i) a secondary ZnBr 2 battery and (ii) a hybrid primary/secondary ZnI 2 battery. A UUV was able to be powered solely by RFBs with increased volumetric ( Q ~ 11 ampere-hours per liter) and areal (108 milliampere-hours per square centimeter) energy density, resulting in a long operational lifetime ( T ~ 1.5 hours) for UUVs composed of primarily electrochemically energy-dense liquid (~90% of the robot’s weight).
Source: Science Advances
Authors: Xu Liu, Shuo Jin, Yiqi Shao, Sofia Kuperman, Autumn Pratt, Duhan Zhang, Jacqueline Lo, Yong Lak Joo, Amir D. Gat, Lynden A. Archer, Robert F. Shepherd
Institutions: Cornell University, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,500
OpenAlex ID: W4404789402