In a new study from KU Leuven and UCLouvain, published in EES Batteries, Wouter Monnens, Robert Markowski, Andrii Kachmar, Zhenyu Zhou, Roy Heyns, Alexandru Vlad, Koen Binnemans and Jan Fransaer show that early-stage calcium plating strongly depends on the underlying metal substrate.
Using a Ca(BH₄)₂/THF electrolyte, the team compared calcium deposition on a series of late-transition and p-block metals and found clear substrate-driven differences in electrochemical response, alloy formation and deposit morphology. On In, Pb and Ga, limited alloying appeared already at potentials more positive than Ca metal plating, while on Cu, Au, Al and Zn, calcium plated without observable alloy formation. Short galvanostatic tests also revealed strong differences in the size and spatial distribution of the first Ca nuclei formed on each substrate. These results are important because they show that the current collector is not a passive component in calcium batteries: it can influence nucleation, interfacial polarization and reversibility, and therefore deserves much more attention in the design of next-generation Ca metal anodes.
To read the full article, go to RSC website.
