High Specific Power Dual-Metal-Ion Rechargeable Microbatteries Based on LiMn₂O₄ and Zinc for Miniaturized Applications

Miniaturized rechargeable batteries with high specific power are required for substitution of the large sized primary batteries currently prevalent in integrated systems since important implications in dimensions and power are expected in future miniaturized applications. Commercially available secondary microbatteries are based on lithium metal which suffers from several well-known safety and manufacturing issues and low specific power when compared to (super) capacitors. A high specific power and novel dual-metal-ion microbattery based on LiMn 2 O 4, zinc, and an aqueous electrolyte is presented in this work. Specific power densities similar to the ones exhibited by typical electrochemical supercapacitors (3400 W kg –1 ) while maintaining specific energies in the range of typical Li-ion batteries are measured (∼100 Wh kg –1 ). Excellent stability with very limited degradation (99.94% capacity retention per cycle) after 300 cycles is also presented. All of these features, together with the intrinsically safe nature of the technology, allow anticipation of this alternative micro power source to have high impact, particularly in the high demand field of newly miniaturized applications.