Issue 14/2016 - The first time in China to use mullite as a catalyst for metal-air batteries

China's first use of mullite as a catalyst for metal-air batteries A few days ago, Professor Wang Weichao of the School of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering of Nankai University and Professor Yao Yan of the University of Houston successfully applied manganese-based mullite materials as catalysts to magnesium-air batteries, which greatly reduced the cost and can work stably in neutral electrolyte, and its superior catalytic activity greatly improves the efficiency
of magnesium-air batteries.
This is also the first time that mullite materials have been used
in oxygen reduction reactions.
The results were published in Science in 2012
.

Metal-air battery is based on metal as fuel, it uses oxygen in the air as the positive active material, metal zinc (or aluminum, magnesium) as the negative electrode active material, oxygen in the air can continuously reach the electrochemical reaction interface through the gas diffusion electrode and react with the metal to release electrical energy
.

"Mullite is a class of ceramic materials
.
Almost no one had thought of using it as a catalyst
for metal-air batteries before.
Wang Weichao said that the idea stemmed from a study
he did four years ago to deal with nitrogen oxides in diesel engine exhaust.
In his experiments, he found that manganese-based mullite materials exhibit excellent catalytic effects
in the process of converting nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide.

"The first is a significant reduction
in costs.
Second, it is more stable and can repeat more reactions, which means longer
battery life.
Third, this is the first application of mullite materials in metal-air batteries, which opens up a new way
for new applications of mullite materials in electrochemistry.
Professor Yao Yan said
.