Electronic and Ionic Conductivities Enhancement of Zinc Anode for Flexible Printed Zinc-Air Battery

Zinc-air batteries are considered promising energy storage devices for future energy applications due to their high energy density, safety, and low cost. However, poor battery performance and low efficiency of zinc utilization, resulted from passivation effect of the zinc anode, is a major challenge. Thus, in this work, investigation of electronic and ionic conductivities enhancement of the zinc anode for flexible printed zinc-air batteries has been carried out. The anode was made from zinc-based inks, prepared from a mixture of zinc and zinc oxide particles. Carbon black, sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) and bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) were investigated for implementation on the anode. The results showed that performance of the batteries increased when carbon black was introduced into the anode as the presence of carbon black improved electronic conductivity of the anode. Again, the batteries performed better when Bi2O3 or Na2SiO3 was introduced due to the formation of solid electrolyte interface(SEI) on the anode. The SEI inhibits passivation of zinc active surfaces and provides effective electrolyte access. The batteries with Bi2O3 provided the best performance. The highest performance was observed when Bi2O3 content reached 26 wt.%. No significant improvement was observed when Bi2O3 concentration increased higher than 26 wt.%.