The UCO develops a rechargeable battery that runs on vitamin B-12
The prototype, designed by a team from IQUEMA, uses this naturally occurring compound as a catalyst in zinc-air batteries, which are safer, lighter, and more sustainable than current ones.
University of Córdoba
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Researchers from the Physical Chemistry research group (FQM-204) at the Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment (IQUEMA) of the University of Cordoba who have developed a rechargeable battery that runs on vitamin B-12
view moreCredit: University of Cordoba
Vitamin B12 is a vitamin essential for the body's proper functioning and is found in foods of animal origin. It is produced by certain bacteria that, in addition to being found in nature, are cultivated at industrial facilities for commercial use, primarily by the food and pharmaceutical industries. It is beneficial when certain nutritional deficiencies are present, and in recent times it has become popular, along with other B vitamins, as a remedy for hangovers, as it can help reduce fatigue. An unusual application may now be added to its established uses in medicine, food, and veterinary science: a team from the University of Córdoba has, for the first time, employed it as a catalyst in the development of a rechargeable battery.
The prototype was designed by researchers with the Physical Chemistry research group (FQM-204) at the Chemical Institute for Energy and the Environment (IQUEMA) of the University of Córdoba. It consists of a zinc-air battery that incorporates vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, which is anchored to single-walled carbon nanotubes. This configuration facilitates the electrochemical reaction because the vitamin contains cobalt (III) at its core. This is the third time that this group has used a biomolecule as a catalyst, following their previous work on batteries made with haemoglobin and catalase, which contain iron (II) and iron (III), respectively. The major breakthrough is that, in the case of B12, the team has succeeded in making the battery they developed rechargeable, achieving up to 250 charge and discharge cycles.
When selecting the material, "we looked at the properties we can find in naturally occurring materials to use them in new batteries," explained Manuel Cano Luna, author of the study, along with researchers Valentín García Caballero, Miguel López León, Pablo Gómez Argudo, Luis Camacho Delgado, José Miguel Rodríguez Mellado, María Teresa Martín Romero, José Abad López, and Antonio Jesús Fernández Romero. Because it is a highly soluble vitamin, the challenge was to find a way to retain it inside a battery that operates with aqueous electrolytes. The solution was to fix it to carbon nanotubes, simulating "the process by which amino acids bind together in proteins".
Light weight, safe, and sustainable
The study, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, marks another step forward in the search for alternatives to conventional lithium-ion batteries, which rely on raw materials whose extraction poses economic, social, and environmental challenges. In this regard, zinc-air batteries are a promising alternative due to their high energy density and their use of materials such as zinc – which is abundant and recyclable – and oxygen itself. In addition, as they do not need to store all the reactive material inside the battery because they get oxygen from the environment, these batteries are lighter, which is why their use is becoming increasingly widespread in small devices, such as hearing aids. The use of non-flammable aqueous electrolytes also makes them safer.
However, to facilitate the reaction that converts chemical energy into electrical energy, an effective catalyst is needed; in the case of rechargeable batteries, this catalyst must also be capable of performing its function in both directions: charging and discharging. In this case, researcher Antonio Jesús Fernández Romero explained that vitamin B12 "has proven to meet the necessary conditions to act as a good catalyst because, during discharge, it catalyses the reduction of oxygen to water and, during recharging, it promotes the production of oxygen".
This breakthrough paves the way for the development of cheaper and more sustainable energy storage systems that could play key roles in addressing some of the challenges posed by the energy transition, such as creating batteries capable of storing the surplus energy generated by renewable sources.
Journal
Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
A vitamin B12-based air electrode for high-performance rechargeable zinc–air batteries
New "chemical armor" could unlock the holy grail of solid-state battery technology
A simple one-step coating builds a silicon-indium hybrid shield on lithium metal, quadrupling current density and extending battery cycle life
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This illustration depicts the in-situ formation of the PFSIn-Li interlayer on a lithium metal anode. A liquid precursor containing a fluorinated siloxane polymer and indium salt reacts on the lithium surface to generate a multifunctional hybrid film. The organic polymer network interpenetrates with inorganic lithium fluoride, lithium-indium alloy, and lithium silicon oxide nanodomains, simultaneously suppressing dendrite growth and stabilizing the interface with the sulfide solid electrolyte.
view moreCredit: ©Science China Press
What if recharging your electric car took no longer than filling up a tank of gas, and the battery lasted for decades? Scientists have long pinned their hopes on lithium metal batteries to make this a reality. Dubbed the "holy grail" of energy storage, lithium metal offers a theoretical capacity nearly ten times that of the graphite used in today's smartphones and electric vehicles. Yet every time researchers get close, the metal sprouts microscopic, tree-like filaments called dendrites that pierce the battery, cause short circuits, and can even trigger fires.
Now, a team at Xidian University in China may have found a way to tame this unruly metal with a surprisingly simple chemical trick: painting its surface with a liquid that turns into a durable, multi-functional armor in situ.
In a study published in SCIENCE CHINA Chemistry, researchers led by Professors Siwu Li, Weiwei Wu, and Chuang Yu describe a one-step solution-cast coating that transforms a standard lithium metal surface into a hybrid shield. The coating combines a silicon-based polymer with indium chloride. When applied to lithium, the metal's natural chemical drive triggers an in-situ reduction reaction. The polymer's fluorine groups convert into lithium fluoride, a rock-solid electrical insulator, while indium ions reduce and alloy with lithium to form tiny nanoparticles. All of this happens within a flexible, 12-micrometer-thick film that clings tightly to the lithium surface.
"This hybrid layer acts like a smart fortress," explains corresponding author Siwu Li. "The polymer backbone provides flexibility to absorb the mechanical stress of lithium expanding and contracting. The lithium fluoride phase blocks electrons to prevent dendrite nucleation. And the lithium-indium alloy nanoparticles act as traffic conductors, guiding lithium ions to deposit evenly rather than piling up in dangerous spikes."
The numbers tell a striking story. In symmetric cell tests, the protected lithium anode sustained a critical current density of 3.5 mA cm⁻², more than four times the 0.8 mA cm⁻² that unprotected lithium can handle before failing. In full cells paired with a nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide cathode and a sulfide solid electrolyte, the new design delivered an initial capacity of 129.8 mA h g⁻¹ and retained 82.3% of that capacity after 300 cycles at 0.5C. Bare lithium cells retained only 43.0%.
The researchers used advanced spectroscopy and microscopy to confirm the hybrid architecture. X-ray diffraction and photoelectron spectroscopy revealed organic siloxane networks alongside crystalline lithium fluoride, metallic indium, and lithium-indium alloy. Cross-sectional electron microscopy showed a dense, uniform film with no cracks or gaps.
Importantly, the chemistry is compatible with industrial roll-to-roll manufacturing. Because the coating is applied as a simple liquid solution, it could be integrated into existing battery production lines using slot-die or gravure coating techniques, with no expensive vacuum chambers required.
Solid-state batteries are widely viewed as the next frontier for electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage because they replace flammable liquid electrolytes with safer solid materials. Sulfide electrolytes are particularly attractive due to their exceptionally high ionic conductivity, but their instability against lithium metal has been a major roadblock. This new interface engineering strategy effectively removes that roadblock without sacrificing performance.
The team believes their approach opens the door to designing other hybrid interfaces by swapping indium for alternative metals such as tin or zinc. For now, the polysiloxane-indium chemistry offers a scalable, low-cost path toward the high-energy, long-life batteries that could one day power everything from electric aviation to renewable energy grids.
Journal
Science China Chemistry
Deep-learning framework breakthrough: AI-guided heterogeneous cathode design supercharges lithium-ion battery kinetics
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(a) Schematic configuration of the half-cell model; (b) equilibrium potential curve of the NCM622 cathode
view moreCredit: Shaoyu Wang, Xueshi Bai, Yingjun Lei, Junhao Pei, Liang Ma, Rui Long, Zhichun Liu & Wei Liu.
Demand for higher energy density and faster charging capabilities in lithium-ion batteries has driven researchers to engineer thicker electrodes. However, as cathode thickness increases, severe kinetic limitations arise: sluggish ionic and electronic transport leads to non-uniform reaction distributions, increased polarization, and incomplete active-material utilization.
To overcome these structural bottlenecks, a research team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, alongside collaborators from South China Normal University, has developed an innovative deep-learning-guided inverse design framework. Published in ENGINEERING Energy, the study demonstrates that optimizing heterogeneous porosity distributions and electrode thickness can significantly boost the discharge capacity of LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622) cathodes across a wide range of discharge rates (0.5 C to 4 C).
The researchers established a physics-based pseudo-two-dimensional (P2D) half-cell model to construct a database containing nearly 100,000 data samples linking electrode thickness, discharge rate, and spatial porosity distribution to voltage-capacity responses. Using this dataset, they trained a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) to serve as a high-fidelity surrogate model, which was subsequently integrated with particle swarm optimization (PSO) for rapid inverse structural design.
Key Highlights and Core Research Findings
- P2D-cGAN-PSO Integrated Framework: The cGAN surrogate model accurately predicted discharge voltage-capacity curves with exceptional precision (MAE = 0.0077 mAh, RMSE = 0.02 mAh, R2 = 0.99, and a mean relative error of only 0.49%), reducing the computational burden of traditional physics-based simulations during high-dimensional structural optimization.
- Enhanced Kinetic Capacity via Porosity Engineering: At a fixed electrode thickness, optimizing heterogeneous porosity distributions improved discharge capacity across all tested discharge rates compared to uniform baseline structures:
- 0.5 C: Capacity increased by 1.74% (from 5.06 to 5.15 mAh).
- 1 C: Capacity increased by 1.39% (from 4.66 to 4.73 mAh).
- 2 C: Capacity increased by 3.39% (from 2.99 to 3.10 mAh), representing the largest performance enhancement.
- 4 C: Capacity increased by 1.66% (from 1.60 to 1.63 mAh).
- Unveiling Kinetic vs. Thermodynamic Mechanisms: P2D numerical analysis revealed that while NCM622's sloped equilibrium-potential curve helps homogenize local reaction rates at low discharge rates, transport limitations dominate at high rates. High discharge rates amplify spatial disparities in reaction rates, rendering active materials near the current collector underutilized.
- Rate-Dependent Structural Trade-offs: PSO inverse design confirmed that optimal electrode thickness decreases as discharge rates rise (shifting from ~150 μm at low rates to ~130 μm at 2 C and ~72 μm at 4 C) due to narrower porosity tolerance windows and intensified polarization constraints.
"Electrode thickness primarily controls active-material loading, whereas spatial porosity distribution provides a critical secondary degree of freedom to mitigate transport limitations and enhance active-material utilization," noted the research team. "Our cGAN-PSO framework bridges the gap between data-driven acceleration and physical electrode-scale optimization, providing clear simulation-based guidance for next-generation high-performance battery cathode design."
· Journal: ENGINEERING Energy
· Read the full article for free: https://rdcu.be/zFhPKsJsMKWa
· Cite this article: Wang, S., Bai, X., Lei, Y., Pei, J., Ma, L., Long, R., Liu, Z., & Liu, W. (2026). Deep-learning-guided heterogeneous cathode structure engineering for enhanced kinetics in lithium-ion batteries. ENGINEERING Energy, 20(5), 10910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-026-1091-z
Journal
ENGINEERING Energy
Method of Research
News article
Article Title
Deep-learning-guided heterogeneous cathode structure engineering for enhanced kinetics in lithium-ion batteries
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