| Summary: | 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<sub>2</sub> particles are mixed with carbon black. Thus, the open-circuit voltage was 1.35 V, the short-circuit current density 50 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, and the maximum power density 20 mW cm<sup>−2</sup> in the absence of MnO<sub>2</sub> and increased to 1.45 V, 60 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, and 28 mW cm<sup>−2</sup>, respectively, in the presence of MnO<sub>2</sub>. The corresponding maximum energy yield during battery discharge was 4.9 mWh cm<sup>−2</sup> in the absence of MnO<sub>2</sub> and increased to 5.5 mWh cm<sup>−2</sup> in the presence of MnO<sub>2</sub>. In the second case, battery discharge lasted longer under the same discharge conditions. The superiority of the MnO<sub>2</sub>-containing electrocatalyst is justified by electrode electrochemical characterization data demonstrating reduction reactions at higher potential and charge transfer with much smaller resistance.
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