A Novel Porous Electronic Conducting Ceramics Loaded with Silver Nano Particles as Cathode for Zinc-Air Batteries

doi:10.15541/jim20170462

Abstract

Abstract:

Zinc-air battery has great advantages such as high energy density, low cost and environmentally friendliness. Air electrode plays an important role in electrochemical performance of a zinc-air battery. In this paper, we report our study of a novel air electrode on which a porous perovskite ceramic La_0.7Sr_0.3CoO_3-_δ(LSC) with Ag nanoparticles directly grown. The porous LSC is used as substrate while Ag as catalyst. The porous structure of substrate attributes to the amount and dispersion of Ag nanoparticles which affect the electrochemical performance of air electrode. Therefore, the property of the Ag-LSC electrode is optimized by adjusting the mass content of pore-former (starch). Experimental results show that the Ag-LSC electrode, with a porosity of ~32% and a Ag load of ~30 mg/cm², exhibits the best performance in all tested samples, and a zinc-air battery assembled with such air electrode gives the maximum power density of 141 mW/cm. What’s more, in order to ensure the gas diffusion channels, the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of the cathode is modified with PTFE to prevent flooding. After all that, the life-time of the zinc-air battery, with optimization by coating a PTFE layer as hydrophobic agent on the surface of the selected Ag-LSC electrode, prolongs significantly.

Key words: zinc-air battery, air electrode, silver nanoparticle, porous La_0.7Sr_0.3CoO_3-δsubstrate;

CLC Number:

O647

WENG Xiao-Lin, LIU Pei-Pei, ZHANG Ya-Peng, LIU Jiang, LIU Mei-Lin. A Novel Porous Electronic Conducting Ceramics Loaded with Silver Nano Particles as Cathode for Zinc-Air Batteries[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2018, 33(8): 854-860.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of mechanism (a) and device (b) of the zinc-air battery

Fig. 2 Cross-sectional SEM images of the LSC substrate with different porosity

Fig. 3 SEM images of LSC (a) and Ag-LSC (b) (porosity 32%, loaded Ag 10 mg/cm2)

Fig. 4 XRD patterns of Ag-LSC cathode (porosity 32%, loaded Ag 10 mg/cm2)

Fig. 5 Output performances (a) and impedance spectra (b) of the zinc-air battery with cathode (loaded Ag 10 mg/cm2) of different porosity

Fig. 6 Output performances of the zinc-air batteries with cathodes of different Ag contents (porosity 32%)

Fig. 7 Discharge curve of the zinc-air battery discharged at different current densities (porosity 32%, loaded Ag 30 mg/cm2)

Fig. 8 SEM image of the cathode with PTFE

Fig. 9 Constant current discharge curves of the zinc-air battery composed of cathode with or without PTFE

Fig. 10 Constant current discharge curves of the zinc-air battery of changing zinc anode after discharging

Fig. 11 XPS spectra of the cathode of zinc-air battery before and after discharging(a) Sr3d; (b) La3d; (c) Co2p

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