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Rechargeable Aluminum‐Air Batteries Based on Aqueous Solid‐State Electrolytes
Author(s) -
Gaele Maria F.,
Di Palma Tonia M.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.202101046
Subject(s) - electrolyte , cathode , separator (oil production) , anode , chemical engineering , materials science , dielectric spectroscopy , electrochemistry , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , electrode , physics , engineering , thermodynamics
The feasibility to recharge aluminum‐air cells realized with a dual water‐based electrolyte without separator is demonstrated. The dual electrolyte, made of polyvinyl alcohol and Xanthan gum, has a different water content, lower at the anodic interface, where parasitic reactions involving hydrogen production play a crucial role in hindering metal re‐deposition, and higher at the cathode side, where water, depending on the pH, allows an efficient reduction of oxygen during discharge or the oxygen evolution during cell charging. The galvanostatic cycles show in the first discharge and charge cycles, the characteristic plateau trends of secondary batteries. By electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis effected after each discharge/charge phase and by measuring anode and cathode potentials during cycling, it is demonstrated that, during the first cycles, the re‐deposition of aluminum is possible by adopting adequate water management in the electrolyte, while the cell malfunctioning in the subsequent cycles is mainly due to the damage of the cathode.