Study of a Thin Film Aluminum-Air Battery

Petros Katsoufis, Maria Katsaiti, Christos Mourelas, Tatiana Santos Andrade, Vassilios Dracopoulos, Constantin Politis, George Avgouropoulos and Panagiotis Lianos
Additional contact information
Petros Katsoufis: Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
Maria Katsaiti: Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
Christos Mourelas: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
Tatiana Santos Andrade: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
Vassilios Dracopoulos: FORTH/ICE-HT, P.O. Box 1414, 26504 Patras, Greece
Constantin Politis: Laboratory of High-tech Materials, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
George Avgouropoulos: Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece
Panagiotis Lianos: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Greece

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-9

Abstract: A thin film aluminum-air battery has been constructed using a commercial grade Al-6061 plate as anode electrode, an air-breathing carbon cloth carrying an electrocatalyst as cathode electrode, and a thin porous paper soaked with aqueous KOH as electrolyte. This type of battery demonstrates a promising behavior under ambient conditions of 20 °C temperature and around 40% humidity. It presents good electric characteristics when plain nanoparticulate carbon (carbon black) is used as electrocatalyst but it is highly improved when MnO 2 particles are mixed with carbon black. Thus, the open-circuit voltage was 1.35 V, the short-circuit current density 50 mA cm −2 , and the maximum power density 20 mW cm −2 in the absence of MnO 2 and increased to 1.45 V, 60 mA cm −2 , and 28 mW cm −2 , respectively, in the presence of MnO 2 . The corresponding maximum energy yield during battery discharge was 4.9 mWh cm −2 in the absence of MnO 2 and increased to 5.5 mWh cm −2 in the presence of MnO 2 . In the second case, battery discharge lasted longer under the same discharge conditions. The superiority of the MnO 2 -containing electrocatalyst is justified by electrode electrochemical characterization data demonstrating reduction reactions at higher potential and charge transfer with much smaller resistance.

Keywords: Al-air battery; paper based thin film battery; MnO 2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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