A novel experimental study on discharge characteristics of an aluminum-air battery

Abstract

Summary In order to explore the discharge characteristics of aluminum‐air battery and find out the best discharge performance of aluminum‐air battery under the optimum working conditions, this paper studies discharge performances of an aluminum‐air battery under various ambient temperature and battery discharge conditions. The relationship between the temperature rise of the battery electrolyte and the discharge current density was studied by an experimental method. Effects of the electrolyte concentration and the ambient temperature on the battery discharge voltage were investigated. In addition, a novel method for calculating the efficiency of the aluminum‐air battery was proposed. Results show that the temperature of the aluminum‐air battery electrolyte gradually increases as its discharge current density increases and the electrolyte temperature rise could reach as high as 10°C after 60 minutes with a constant 35 mA cm−2 discharge current density. The specific energy and the specific capacity of the aluminum‐air battery first increase and then decrease as the current density increases. When the current density is 25 mA cm−2, the specific energy has a peak of 3105 Wh kg−1 for the condition of the chamber temperature 40°C and the electrolyte concentration 2 mol L−1 (2 M), while the specific capacity has a peak of 2207 Ah kg−1; furthermore, its efficiencies under various conditions increase first with the current density, reach a peak range of 19.6% to approximately 36% at 25 mA cm−2, and then decrease. These experimental results could be used as a technical guidance for the optimization in thermal management designs of the aluminum‐air battery under various operating conditions.

The role of Al 2 Ca and Al 2 (Sm,Ca,La) particles in the microstructures and electrochemical discharge performance of as‐extruded Mg‐3wt.%Al‐1wt.%Zn‐based alloys for primary Mg‐air batteries

“…Metal‐air batteries, made up of metal‐based anodes, air‐breathing cathodes, and electrolyte, are being regarded as a clean and high energy fuel for the modern automotive industry . The preparation of durable and high performance air‐breathing cathodes is one of the hotspots for metal‐air batteries, as well as the battery management (temperature increase and discharge characteristics) . Even so, practicable anode materials also require additional attention.…”

“…1,2 The preparation of durable and high performance air-breathing cathodes is one of the hotspots for metal-air batteries, 3,4 as well as the battery management (temperature increase and discharge characteristics). 5,6 Even so, practicable anode materials also require additional attention. Magnesium alloys are attractive candidates for anode materials because of their high activity, low toxicity, and abundant reserves on earth.…”

Integrating micro metal‐air batteries in lateral flow test for point‐of‐care applications

“…Instead of noble metal catalysts such as Pt and Ag, 31 MnO 2 is widely used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in metal-air batteries because of its low cost, 32 which, however, brings pollution issues. To make themicro MABs more environmentally friendly, a commercial nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (N-CNT, Aladdin) powder was used instead of MnO 2 .…”

Regulating solvation and interface chemistry to inhibit corrosion of the aluminum anode in aluminum–air batteries

“…Generally, aluminum-air batteries can exhibit a high theoretical energy density of 8.1 kW h kg À1 , which far surpasses that of state-ofthe-art lithium-ion batteries. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19] As a rule, the strong alkaline solution is utilized as an electrolyte to remove the passivation layer on the aluminum surface and reduce the battery polarization. 15 However, the aluminum metal anode suffered from serious self-corrosion and the parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in both open-circuit state and working mode under alkaline conditions, leading to inferior battery performance and sharply curtails the safety level.…”