Zinc-air batteries are the quiet workhorses inside hearing aids: cheap, compact and, for the most part, thrown away after one use. A research team that includes a Rutgers professor now reports a way to make a rechargeable version run steadily for 1,000 hours, without leaning on platinum-style precious metals. The Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute summarized the work on November 4, 2026.
The study appeared in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. Tewodros Asefa, an RCEI affiliate and professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of chemical and biochemical engineering at Rutgers, is a co-author. What follows is based on the institute’s write-up and the paper it links to.
The problem with zinc-air storage
Zinc-air batteries draw oxygen from the surrounding air to react with zinc. According to the institute, they are low-cost, relatively safe and friendly to the environment, which makes them an attractive option for storing energy. The catch is speed. The chemical reactions that charge and discharge them are slow, and the materials used to speed those reactions up, called catalysts, are often expensive precious metals such as platinum.
That cost and that slowness have held back real-world performance. A catalyst that is both durable and free of precious metals would help make zinc-air storage more practical and more affordable, and the institute says it could also lower the carbon footprint of the battery.
A carbon flower with metal atoms in its gaps
The team’s answer is a special carbon material shaped like tiny flowers. To make it, the researchers heated a flower-shaped starting material to produce carbon that contains tiny empty spots, known as vacancies. They then filled those vacancies with iron and nickel atoms.
Computer simulations helped explain why it works. According to the write-up, pairs of iron atoms cooperate to speed up the key charging and discharging reactions, while the nickel atoms fine-tune how the catalyst behaves. The team also found that leaving some vacancies open was better than filling every one, because the open spots helped hold the metal atoms in place.
What the tests showed
The institute reports that a zinc-air battery built with the flower-shaped material delivered more power than counterparts using expensive catalysts, quoting 264.4 milliwatts per square meter against 172.2 for the comparison. Readers should note that the write-up gives the comparison figure in milliwatts per square centimeter, so the units as published do not line up. The paper linked by the institute is the place to confirm the exact power densities.
The durability result is clearer. The batteries could be recharged, which sets them apart from the commercial zinc-air cells typically found in hearing aids, designed to be used once. The flower-shaped cells ran steadily for 1,000 hours, through 2,000 charge and discharge cycles.
Why this matters for energy storage
Grid and home storage needs chemistries that are cheap, safe and built from common materials. Lithium-ion dominates today, but researchers keep looking at alternatives such as zinc-air, sodium-ion and flow batteries to widen the options. A precious-metal-free catalyst that lasts is a step toward making one of those alternatives workable.
Asefa framed the hope in terms of access. In a statement quoted by the institute, he said batteries that last longer and do not depend on expensive precious metals could make clean energy storage more affordable and accessible, and that the work could help guide the design of durable, low-cost materials.
What it means, and what it does not
This is laboratory research on a catalyst, not a finished product. The reported 1,000 hours is a meaningful test for a rechargeable zinc-air cell, but it is a long way from the years of daily cycling a grid battery must survive. Open questions include how the catalyst performs at larger cell sizes, how it is manufactured at scale, and how the cost compares once production is counted.
Still, the design idea is worth watching. Using paired atoms on a carbon scaffold, guided by simulation, is a general strategy that other teams may borrow for different reactions. If the result holds up in independent work, cheaper catalysts could remove one of the main economic barriers to rechargeable zinc-air storage.
Bottom line
A flower-shaped carbon loaded with iron and nickel atoms lets a zinc-air battery recharge and run for 1,000 hours without precious metals, according to the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute. It is an early but encouraging result for lower-cost clean energy storage.