In collaboration with industry partners, Flinders University researchers are developing a zinc-iodine battery storage system prototype based on their aqueous zinc-iodine battery (AIZB) design that can charge and discharge over 60,000 cycles.
Aiming to establish an alternative to large-scale lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, the researchers said their battery design uses a low-cost organic cyclodextrin-based polymer that helps store and control key chemicals, allowing it to charge quickly while maintaining performance.
“When fully charged in seven minutes, it can operate at 1.3 to 1.4 V with a capacity of 200 mAh/g over 8,000 cycles or charged in just three minutes and last for more than 60,000 cycles at 150 mAh/g,” they said.
Used in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic ingredients, the structure cyclodextrins acts like a cage, locking iodine compounds in place and preventing them from disrupting the battery’s operation.
Flinders University College of Science and Engineering Matthew Flinders Fellow and Associate Professor in Chemistry Zhongfan Jia said iodine is one an effective rechargeable battery materials with the potential to store a high amount of energy relative to its weight – around 211 mAh/g (milliampere-hours per gram).
“However, one of the biggest challenges with this new battery technology is stopping iodine species from moving to places it shouldn’t inside the unit,” Jia said.
“The system offers a new approach to mitigate polyiodide shuttling by using polymers derived from inexpensive, biodegradable materials. It enables sustainable and long-lasting aqueous zinc-iodine batteries.”
The world’s largest zinc reserves account at 20%-28% are found in Australia enabling AZIBs to answer global resource shortages and supply costs related to an increasing demand and consumption of Li-ion batteries, with a low-cost and widely available material.
“As a top global producer and exporter, we can use these zinc resources for safer energy storage, which is important for energy manufacturing in Australia,” FU Sustainable Polymers for Energy and Environment PhD Student and first co-author on the research’s paper, Shangxu Jiang said.
The Caging polyhalide anions in polycyclodextrin for long-lasting aqueous zinc-iodine batteries (2026) article by Shangxu Jiang, Zhipeng Pei, Yanlin Shi, Kai Zhang, Justin M Chalker, Sara J Fraser-Miller, Michelle L Coote and Zhongfan Jia has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
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