Perovskite Efficient Advanced Catalysts for Energy - Zinc Air Batteries

Objective

Zinc–air batteries (ZABs) are emerging as a promising alternative to Li-based systems due to their high gravimetric energy density and the abundance, low cost, and recyclability of zinc, a non-critical raw material. In addition, ZABs employ safe, non-toxic, and non-flammable aqueous electrolytes, enhancing further their competitiveness. However, their practical deployment remains hindered by intrinsic physicochemical limitations, the most critical one arises from the sluggish oxygen electrocatalysis, leading to high overpotentials in both oxygen reactions (OER/ORR). High-entropy perovskite oxides (HEPOs) are promising electrocatalysts for ZABs due to their tunable high-entropy structure, which can enhance OER/ORR activity and improve electrochemical stability compared to conventional oxides. Their complex atomic distribution is expected to enhance the stability in acidic electrolytes, allowing higher cell potentials (up to 2.55 V) and increasing the energy density while reducing long-term degradation. The PEACE-ZAB project aims to accelerate the discovery of lanthanum-based HEPOs for ZABs using machine learning (ML) on high-throughput experimental data. The project will (i) explore HEPO compositional spaces with reduced critical raw material content, (ii) elucidate the relationships between composition, structure, and electrochemical performance (OER/ORR activity and stability in acidic/alkaline electrolytes) through ML-assisted analysis, and (iii) transfer the most promising candidates to industrial production with startup Nano4Energy. The project will deepen the candidate’s expertise in electrochemical devices and machine learning - both key enabling technologies for Horizon Europe program - while leveraging his background in high-throughput experimentation for energy materials. The project will also re-enforcing the candidate’s transferrable skills and technology transfer competence as part of the EIC Innoenergy community and the clean energy R&D&I sector.