The effect of electrode calendering on the performance of fully printed Zn∣MnO ₂ batteries

Abstract

Primary zinc-carbon batteries with a coplanar battery architecture were prepared by screen printing. Prior to battery activation by printing of an acidic zinc chloride electrolyte, printed zinc and manganese dioxide electrodes were compacted by calendering. Material densification of the electodes resulted in electrode layer thickness reduction on both sides, modified micropore surface area and volume on the cathode side. Galvanostatic impedance measurements and chronopotentiometry were used to characterise fabricated batteries with the individually prepared electrode configurations. While calendering of both electrodes of the batteries showed adverse effects by an increase of internal resistances and a reduction of discharge capacities, exclusive calendering of the zinc anode increased the active material utilisation by electrochemical cell reaction and thus the discharge efficiency of the battery.

Gap width modification on fully screen-printed coplanar Zn|MnO2 batteries

“…Galvanostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements and chronopotentiometry are systematically used to investigate the mechanism of the gap width variation on corresponding battery performance parameters discharge capacity Qout, internal resistance Rin, and short circuit current Isc. In accordance with the results of our previous experiments [36], all batteries of this experimental series comprise of a calendered Zn electrode and non-calendered MnO2 cathodes. Typically, primary Zn|MnO2 batteries are discharged to the COV of 0.9 V. Here, we discharged the batteries by chronopotentiometry to a COV of 0.6 V to determine potentially useful discharge capacity beyond the 0.9 V battery potential.…”

“…Transferred masses of MnO2 electrodes were increased to a considerable extent by the modification of the printing process to wet-on-dry double prints with intermediate drying (Figure 5a). While an average MnO2 electrode mass of 0.64 g was achieved with a single print [36], this value was nearly doubled to 1.15 g when averaged for all battery configurations fabricated in this study. Mean values of individual battery versions range from 1.11 g (5 mm) to 1.20 g (4 mm).…”

Electrode Design for MnO2-Based Aqueous Electrochemical Capacitors: Influence of Porosity and Mass Loading

“…As a result, the mass loading is the same as for the as-coated electrode while the volumetric loading (in mg·cm −3 ) is significantly improved. Such a process has been the topic of many modeling and experimental studies in the field of lithium-ion batteries [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], organic lithium-ion batteries [ 28 ], lithium-sulfur batteries [ 29 ] or zinc-based batteries [ 30 ]. It is most rarely reported for supercapacitors [ 31 ].…”

Passivation capability of carbon black layers for screen-printed battery applications with Ag current collectors

“…In recent years, advances in material sciences and fabrication techniques resulted in considerable improvements of printed battery performance metrics. The primary zinc-manganese dioxide (Zn|MnO2) battery is still one of the most promising battery chemistries for printed electronics applications [10,14,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Due to the increased battery potential, focus is shifted towards printable primary and secondary lithium-ion batteries (LIB) [26,[30][31][32][33].…”

“…Except for the substrate and encapsulation, all functional layers of printed batteries can be completely realised by printing technologies (Fig. 1a) [24,25,29,37,38]. For printed current collectors, commercially available conductive silver and carbon black inks are typically the first choice to meet the demanded requirement of an acceptable electrical conductivity to reduce the ohmic drop during discharge (Fig.…”