MUMBAI, India, Jan. 23 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202531103001 A) filed by Indian Institute Of Technology, Guwahati, Assam, on Oct. 25, 2025, for 'long-life rechargeable aqueous zinc ion battery anodes using long-chain nitrile additives having hydrophobic tails.'
Inventor(s) include Uday Narayan Maiti; and Pranab Bera.
The application for the patent was published on Jan. 23, under issue no. 04/2026.
According to the abstract released by the Intellectual Property India: "The invention presents electrolytes and additives for rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) using straight-chain nitrile molecules with long alkyl chain lengths to enhance Zn anode reversibility and cycling stability. Pentanenitrile is identified as the optimal additive due to its balanced solubility and hydrophobicity. It forms a voltage-dependent hydrophobic film at the anode-electrolyte interface, suppressing Zn corrosion and hydrogen evolution by limiting water access and promoting uniform Zn deposition through steric effects. Unlike co-solvent strategy for short-chain acetonitrile molecule, only 1 vol% of long-chain pentanenitrile effectively increases local hydrophobicity, optimizing anode stability and deposition behavior. Its selective chain length and concentration regulate film thickness, hydrophobicity, and plating overpotential. Additionally, the tunable HOMO-LUMO levels and enhanced adsorption energy of longer-chain nitrile molecules facilitate improved charge transfer and 3D homogeneous Zn growth, significantly boosting Zn cyclability-up to ten- to fifteen-fold-even under high current densities."
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
