Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

This New Battery Could Finally Solve Renewable Energy’s Biggest Problem

As the world rapidly shifts toward clean energy, countries everywhere are investing heavily in solar panels, wind farms, and other renewable power sources. These technologies are crucial for reducing carbon emissions and fighting climate change. However, renewable energy has one major challenge: it is not always available when we need it. The sun does not shine at night, and the wind does not blow all the time. To truly rely on renewable energy, we must be able to store excess electricity produced during sunny or windy periods and use it later when demand is high.

This is where advanced battery technologies come in. Among the many battery types being explored today, zinc–manganese (Zn–Mn) batteries are emerging as a promising option for large-scale, long-term energy storage. Recent research by scientists from the University of Waterloo, the University of California, and the DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory has introduced a major innovation that could solve some long-standing problems with these batteries. Their work, published in Nature Energy, could help pave the way for safer, longer-lasting, and more affordable batteries for power grids worldwide.


Why Zinc–Manganese Batteries Matter

Zinc–manganese batteries are attractive for several reasons. Zinc and manganese are abundant, low-cost, and widely available materials. Unlike lithium-based batteries, which rely on rare and expensive elements, Zn–Mn batteries are easier to scale up for large installations such as power grids. Even more importantly, these batteries can use water-based, or aqueous, electrolytes instead of flammable organic liquids. This makes them much safer, especially for large energy storage systems.

In a typical Zn–Mn battery, zinc (Zn) acts as the anode—the electrode that releases electrons during discharge—while manganese dioxide (MnO₂) acts as the cathode, the electrode that receives electrons. The battery works through a process called electrodeposition and dissolution. During charging and discharging, solid materials form on the electrodes and later dissolve back into the electrolyte. One key reaction that enables this process is known as the MnO₂/Mn²⁺ conversion reaction.

However, this reaction usually requires acidic conditions to work efficiently. And here lies the problem.

The Challenge: Acid Helps One Side, Harms the Other

While acidic electrolytes are necessary for the manganese reaction at the cathode, they can be very harmful to the zinc anode. Acidic environments tend to corrode zinc, causing unwanted side reactions that degrade the battery over time. This corrosion reduces efficiency, shortens battery life, and makes long-term operation unreliable.

For grid-scale energy storage, batteries need to last for thousands of charge–discharge cycles over many years. Frequent replacement is costly and impractical. Therefore, finding a way to protect the zinc electrode while still allowing the manganese reaction to occur has been a major challenge for researchers.

A Smart Solution: Aqueous–Organic Eutectic Electrolytes

To solve this problem, the research team led by Jinghan Li and Chang Li took a fresh approach. Instead of relying on traditional acidic electrolytes, they designed a new type of electrolyte that combines water with carefully chosen organic compounds. This mixture forms what is known as a deep eutectic electrolyte.

In simple terms, a eutectic mixture has a lower freezing point and different chemical properties than its individual components. In this case, mixing water with organic molecules changes how water molecules interact with each other. Specifically, it disrupts water’s hydrogen-bonding network, which plays a key role in many unwanted side reactions inside batteries.

By altering this microscopic structure of water, the researchers were able to achieve something remarkable: they improved the reversibility of manganese dioxide reactions at the cathode while simultaneously stabilizing the zinc anode.

How the New Electrolyte Improves Battery Performance

The new aqueous–organic electrolyte offers several important benefits:

  1. Reduced Zinc Corrosion
    The modified environment around the zinc anode significantly slows down corrosion. This allows zinc to cycle—depositing and dissolving—more smoothly and consistently over time.

  2. Better Manganese Reversibility
    At the cathode, the electrolyte helps manganese dioxide form in a layered structure with better pathways for ion movement. This improves how easily MnO₂ can be deposited and later stripped away, boosting overall efficiency.

  3. Suppression of Harmful Gas Formation
    In many aqueous batteries, unwanted reactions can produce hydrogen or oxygen gas, which wastes energy and damages the battery. The new electrolyte increases the energy barrier for oxygen evolution, effectively suppressing these reactions.

  4. Improved pH Control at the Interface
    The electrolyte creates localized pH gradients near the cathode surface. This fine control over acidity helps optimize proton transport, which is critical for the MnO₂/Mn²⁺ reaction.

Together, these improvements lead to a much more stable and durable battery system.

Impressive Results in Real Battery Tests

To test their design, the researchers built actual battery cells using the new electrolyte. The results were highly encouraging. The batteries showed excellent stability and maintained high efficiency over long periods of cycling. In fact, the system achieved high Coulombic efficiency—meaning very little energy was lost during charging and discharging—for more than 5,000 cycles.

Even more impressive, this performance was achieved without adding external acid to the system. This simplifies battery design and further reduces the risk of corrosion and safety issues.

As the researchers noted in their paper, their zinc–manganese battery design moves the field closer to high-energy-density, long-life storage solutions through smart electrolyte engineering rather than complex electrode modifications.

Why This Matters for the Future of Energy

The implications of this research are significant. A safe, durable, and affordable battery based on zinc and manganese could be a game-changer for renewable energy storage. Such batteries could store excess solar power generated during the day and release it at night, or balance wind energy fluctuations across seasons.

Because the electrolyte is non-flammable, these batteries are also safer for large installations near cities and industrial areas. Their long lifespan reduces maintenance and replacement costs, making renewable energy systems more economical in the long run.

Looking ahead, the research team plans to test their electrolyte in larger battery cells and under real power grid conditions. Their work could also inspire similar electrolyte designs for other battery chemistries, opening new paths toward sustainable energy storage.

A Step Closer to a Clean Energy World

As renewable energy continues to expand, reliable energy storage will be the backbone of a clean and resilient power system. The development of advanced aqueous zinc–manganese batteries with innovative electrolytes represents a crucial step forward. By solving long-standing chemical challenges with elegant material design, scientists are bringing us closer to a future where clean energy is not only produced sustainably but stored safely and efficiently for everyone.

Reference: Li, J., Li, C., Liu, B. et al. Aqueous eutectic electrolytes suppress oxygen and hydrogen evolution for long-life Zn||MnO2 dual-electrode-free batteries. Nat Energy (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-025-01958-8

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more