Context
- India’s planetary missions like Mars Mission may soon be able to reduce payload mass and launch costs with the help of an indigenously developed Metal CO2 Battery with CO2 as an Energy Carrier.
Key Details
About Metal CO2 Battery
- An IIT professor and a recipient of this year’s SwarnaJayanti fellowship instituted by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India recently demonstrated the technical feasibility of Lithium- CO2 battery in simulated Mars atmosphere for the first time.
- The development of Metal-CO2 batteries will provide highly specific energy density with the reduction in mass and volume, which will reduce payload mass and launch cost of planetary missions.
- Metal-CO2 batteries have a great potential to offer significantly high energy density than the currently used Li-ion batteries.
- They provide a useful solution to fix CO2 emissions, which is better than energy-intensive traditional CO2 fixation methods.
Working of the Battery
- A primary Li-CO2 battery uses pure carbon dioxide as a cathode.
- According to chemical knowledge, Lithium metal can react with CO2 to form lithium oxalate at room temperature.
- While at high temperatures, lithium oxalate decomposes to form lithium carbonate and carbon monoxide gas.