Development and Characterization of an Electrically Rechargeable Zinc-Air Battery Stack

Hongyun Ma, Baoguo Wang, Yongsheng Fan and Weichen Hong
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Hongyun Ma: Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Baoguo Wang: Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yongsheng Fan: Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Weichen Hong: Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 10, 1-9

Abstract: An electrically rechargeable zinc-air battery stack consisting of three single cells in series was designed using a novel structured bipolar plate with air-breathing holes. Alpha-MnO 2 and LaNiO 3 severed as the catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The anodic and cathodic polarization and individual cell voltages were measured at constant charge-discharge (C-D) current densities indicating a uniform voltage profile for each single cell. One hundred C-D cycles were carried out for the stack. The results showed that, over the initial 10 cycles, the average C-D voltage gap was about 0.94 V and the average energy efficiency reached 89.28% with current density charging at 15 mA·cm ?2 and discharging at 25 mA·cm ?2 . The total increase in charging voltage over the 100 C-D cycles was ~1.56% demonstrating excellent stability performance. The stack performance degradation was analyzed by galvanostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The charge transfer resistance of ORR increased from 1.57 to 2.21 ? and that of Zn/Zn 2+ reaction increased from 0.21 to 0.34 ? after 100 C-D cycles. The quantitative analysis guided the potential for the optimization of both positive and negative electrodes to improve the cycle life of the cell stack.

Keywords: electrically rechargeable zinc-air battery stack; oxygen reduction reaction; oxygen evolution reaction; polarization; charge-discharge cycles (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: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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