Synthesis of a Potential Fast Ionic Conductor for Mg+ Ions

Development of a solid with high conductivity of Mg2+ cations will allow application of that substance as membrane in magnesium-air batteries. These batteries will be much cheaper, safer, and at the same time store much more energy than lead-, lithium- or sodium batteries with the same weight. Such batteries would be ideal for electric vehicles and for the off-peak storage of renewable electricity. However, such materials are unknown at present. We describe the scheme of synthesis of a new material and explain why we expect that this particular compound should exhibit high conductivity of Mg2+ cations, exceeding that of all known materials. In addition, unlike the known materials, the proposed solid should be stable to the battery conditions. During Phase I we are going to synthesize this material and measure its Mg2+ ionic conductivity. During Phase II we will test if our material does improve the performance of magnesium batteries, test alternative, much simpler and cheaper way for synthesis of this material on a large scale, and partner up with/license our IP to a company that already utilizes similar process in order to commercialize the production of the fast Mg2+ conductor. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The new material will allow for the construction of magnesium-air batteries that will be several times cheaper, simpler, safer, and store several times more energy than other batteries. That will allow for the much wider spread of electric vehicles, reduction of the US oil dependency, reduction of its trade deficit, creation of domestic jobs, increased reliance onto the renewable energy and materials sources, and reduction of CO2 emissions. The other expected wide application of those magnesium batteries is electricity storage in renewable sources for the off-peak energy supplies, thus helping the development of the alternative energy solar and wind.