Researchers have developed a water-based battery to store solar and wind energy

Re:Researchers have developed a water-based battery to store... by fernly on Monday May 07, 2018 @10:48AM (#17013130)

> ...not a battery.

The paper, linked below (thanks xelxebar) would beg to differ, it says

> we report a rechargeable manganese–hydrogen battery, where the cathode is cycled between soluble Mn2+ and solid MnO2 with a two-electron reaction, and the anode is cycled between H2 gas and H2O through well-known catalytic reactions of hydrogen evolution and oxidation.

They give an equation for the cell operation as,

    Mn2+ + 2H2O ↔ MnO2 + 2H+ + H2

Let me try that with _sub_ and ^sup^, does HN support that?

    Mn2^+^ + 2H_2_O ↔ MnO_2_ + 2H^+^ + H_2_

Anyway, that double-ended arrow says that you can read it from right to left, i.e. evolved H_2_ gets back into (or stays in?) the solution to react with the O_2_ from the magnesium oxide to make water. Quote,

> During discharge of the battery, the uniform layer of as-deposited MnO2 on the cathode is dissolved back to soluble Mn2+ electrolyte and H2 is oxidized on the anode.

So, I guess it stays in solution...?

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Re:Researchers have developed a water-based battery to store... by jwilk on Monday May 07, 2018 @11:50AM (#17013698)

HN formatting capabilities are not great, but you can use Unicode sub-/superscripts:

Mn₂⁺ + 2H₂O ⇌ MnO₂ + 2H⁺ + H₂

(Shameless plug: I generated the above with https://github.com/jwilk/chemiscripts .)

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