Researchers at Washington State University have demonstrated a way to use corn protein to improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, a finding that holds promise for expanding the use of the high-energy, lighter-weight batteries in electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and other applications.
华盛顿州立大学的研究人员展示了一种利用玉米蛋白提升锂硫电池性能的方法，这一发现有望扩大这种高能量、轻量化电池在电动汽车、可再生能源存储及其他应用领域的使用范围。

Lithium-sulfur batteries are lighter for the same amount of energy and more environmentally friendly than commonly used lithium-ion batteries, but their commercial adoption has been limited by technological hurdles that shorten their lifespan.
锂硫电池在相同能量下比常用的锂离子电池更轻且更环保，但其商业应用因技术障碍导致寿命缩短而受到限制。

The WSU team's research, published in the Journal of Power Sources, showed that a protective barrier made of corn protein, in combination with a commonly used plastic, significantly improved the performance of a button-sized lithium-sulfur battery. The researchers found that the battery could hold its charge over 500 cycles, a significant improvement over batteries without the protective corn barrier, known as a separator.
WSU团队发表在《Journal of Power Sources》的研究表明，由玉米蛋白与常用塑料制成的保护屏障显著提升了纽扣型锂硫电池性能。研究人员发现，这种带有玉米保护屏障（即隔膜）的电池可保持500次循环充放电，较无玉米隔膜的电池有显著提升。

"This work demonstrated a simple and efficient approach to preparing a functional separator for enhancing the battery's performance," said Katie Zhong, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a corresponding author on the paper. "The results are excellent."
"这项工作展示了一种简单高效的方法来制备功能性隔膜，以提升电池性能，"机械与材料工程学院教授、论文通讯作者Katie Zhong表示，"结果非常出色。"

Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered a possible alternative to lithium-ion batteries for many applications. They theoretically contain a lot more energy, so using them in cars or airplanes would require much smaller and lighter batteries than current batteries. Furthermore, the lithium-sulfur battery uses sulfur for its cathode, which is abundantly available, cheap, and non-toxic, making it more environmentally friendly than current batteries. The cathode of a lithium-ion battery is made of metal oxides and include toxic heavy metals like cobalt or nickel.
锂硫电池被认为是锂离子电池在许多应用中的可能替代品。理论上，它们含有更多的能量，因此在汽车或飞机中使用它们将需要比当前电池更小更轻的电池。此外，锂硫电池的阴极使用硫，这种材料储量丰富、价格低廉且无毒，使其比当前电池更环保。锂离子电池的阴极由金属氧化物制成，并含有钴或镍等有毒重金属。

However, lithium-sulfur batteries suffer from two major problems. Called the shuttle effect, the sulfur portion of the battery tends to leak into the liquid part of the battery and migrate to the lithium side, causing the battery to stop working very quickly. The lithium side of the battery also often grows spikes of lithium metal, called dendrites, which can cause an electric short circuit.
然而，锂硫电池存在两大问题。其一被称为穿梭效应（shuttle effect），即电池中的硫成分容易渗入电池的液体部分并迁移到锂端，导致电池迅速停止工作。其二，锂端常会形成锂金属尖刺（dendrites），可能引发短路。

In their proof-of-concept work, the researchers used corn protein as a cover for a separator in the middle of the battery to prevent both problems.
在这项概念验证工作中，研究人员使用玉米蛋白作为电池中间隔膜的覆盖层，以同时防止这两个问题。

"Corn protein would make for a good battery material because it's abundant, natural, and sustainable," said Jin Liu, professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a corresponding author on the paper.
"玉米蛋白将成为一种优良的电池材料，因为它储量丰富、天然可再生且可持续，"机械与材料工程学院教授、该论文通讯作者Jin Liu表示。

Graduate students Ying Guo, Pedaballi Sireesha and Chenxu Wang led the work.
研究生Ying Guo、Pedaballi Sireesha和Chenxu Wang主导了这项工作。

The building blocks of the protein are amino acids, which reacted with the battery materials to improve the movement of lithium ions and inhibit the shuttle effect. Because protein is naturally folded on top of itself, the researchers added a small amount of flexible plastic to flatten it and improve its performance.
蛋白质的构建区块是氨基酸，它们与电池材料发生反应，改善了锂离子的动作并抑制了穿梭效应。由于蛋白质会自然折叠，研究人员添加了少量柔性塑料使其展平，从而提升其性能。

"The first thing we need to think about is how to open the protein, so we can use those interactions and manipulate the protein," said Liu.
刘表示：“我们首先需要考虑的是如何打开蛋白质，这样我们就能利用这些相互作用来操控蛋白质。”

The researchers conducted both numerical studies and experiments to prove the battery's success. They are conducting further studies on how the process worked, which amino acid interactions might be responsible, and how the protein structure might be optimized.
研究人员通过数值模拟和实验证明了电池的成功。他们正在进一步研究该过程的工作原理、可能是哪些氨基酸相互作用导致的结果，以及如何优化蛋白质结构。

"A protein is a very complicated structure," said Zhong. "We need to do further simulation studies to identify which amino acids in the protein structure can work best for solving the critical shuttle effect and dendrite problems."
"蛋白质是一个非常复杂的结构，"钟说。"我们需要进行进一步的模拟研究，以确定蛋白质结构中的哪些氨基酸能最有效地解决关键的穿梭效应和枝晶问题。"

The researchers would like to collaborate with industry partners to study larger experimental batteries and to scale up the process. The work was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
研究人员希望与行业合作伙伴共同研究更大的实验电池并扩大生产规模。这项工作由U.S. Department of Agriculture资助。