Publication date: 15th December 2025
Zinc-Air Batteries (ZABs) have gained significant attention as a promising solution for sustainable energy storage, owing to their high theoretical energy density (1000-1300 Wh kg⁻¹) and the use of non-toxic, inexpensive, and abundant materials. ZABs are particularly suited for low-consumption applications with long energy durability. However, their widespread application remains hindered by challenges such as the inherent instability of traditional liquid electrolytes, particularly issues with leakage and evaporation. [1,2] This work presents the development of agarose-based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) as a potential solution to enhance the performance, mechanical stability, and longevity of ZABs.
Two primary approaches were explored to improve the GPE properties; (1) increasing the agarose concentration and (2) introducing boric acid (BA) as a crosslinker. A comprehensive experimental protocol was employed, compression tests, ionic conductivity measurements, and accelerated aging under elevated temperatures. The findings demonstrate that increasing the agarose concentration significantly improves the mechanical strength of the gels, with compression tests showing enhanced resilience compared to lower concentrations, without affecting the electrochemical performance (i.e., conductivity and zinc utilization). Together with crosslinking with BA, this resulted in gels with exceptional stability, ensuring the GPE maintained its structural integrity without degradation under accelerated ageing conditions.
In addition, ionic conductivity tests revealed that agarose gels, both crosslinked and non-crosslinked, exhibited ionic conductivities comparable to traditional liquid electrolytes. Accelerated ageing tests showed that new agarose gels outperformed previous formulations in long-term stability, maintaining promising performance even under harsh conditions.
These results highlight the potential of crosslinked and non-crosslinked agarose-based GPEs as promising advancement for ZABs. With superior mechanical properties, high ionic conductivity, and excellent long-term stability, these gels offer a robust solution to address key limitations of traditional liquid electrolytes, thereby enhancing the performance and scalability of GPEs for next-generation energy storage technologies.
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