Study of a Thin Film Aluminum-Air Battery

• Main Authors: Petros Katsoufis, Maria Katsaiti, Christos Mourelas, Tatiana Santos Andrade, Vassilios Dracopoulos, Constantin Politis, George Avgouropoulos, Panagiotis Lianos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: al-air battery; paper based thin film battery; mno₂
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/6/1447

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 MnO₂ 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 MnO₂ and increased to 1.45 V, 60 mA cm^−2, and 28 mW cm^−2, respectively, in the presence of MnO₂. The corresponding maximum energy yield during battery discharge was 4.9 mWh cm^−2 in the absence of MnO₂ and increased to 5.5 mWh cm^−2 in the presence of MnO₂. In the second case, battery discharge lasted longer under the same discharge conditions. The superiority of the MnO₂-containing electrocatalyst is justified by electrode electrochemical characterization data demonstrating reduction reactions at higher potential and charge transfer with much smaller resistance.