A Stability Improvement of Rechargeable Zn-air Batteries by Introducing Thiourea and Polyethylenimine as Electrolyte Additives
a Materials Science and Engineering, Research Group, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Institut Teknologi, Bandung, Indonesia
b National Centre for Sustainable Transportation Technology (NCSTT), Bandung, Indonesia
Abstract
© 2018 IEEE.Energy storage devices, such as batteries are expected to store large amount of energy while delivering the energy rapidly. Particularly, Zn-air battery offers high specific energy and low production cost. We present a method to improve the cycle life of the rechargeable Zn-air battery by introducing additives into the alkaline electrolyte. Thiourea and polyethylenimine are chosen as the additive to suppress the growth of Zn dendrite during the charging process. Combination of thiourea and polyethylenimine as electrolyte additives is shown to produce smooth and compact Zn deposits. As a result, charging profile and cycling stability of rechargeable Zn-air battery with thiourea and polyethylenimine as electrolyte additives are improved as compared to the Zn-air battery without any electrolyte additives. The battery with electrolyte additives shows a stable performance for up to 250 discharge/charge cycles, which is higher than the battery without any electrolyte additives (187 cycles). This study illustrates a method to design a robust electrolyte system for a long cycle life of rechargeable Zn-air battery.
Author keywords
Alkaline electrolytes,Charging process,Charging profiles,Cycling stability,Discharge/charge cycles,Electrolyte additives,Electrolyte systems,Polyethylenimines
Indexed keywords
dendrite,electrodeposition,electrolyte additive,Zn-air batteries