Masri, Mohamad Najmi
(2013)
The Study Of Agar Binder And Super P Additive In Porous Zinc Anode For Zinc-Air Batteries.
PhD thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Abstract
A zinc-air (Zn-air) battery was fabricated using porous Zn anode, an air
cathode, and 6 M KOH-sago gel electrolyte. The porous Zn anode was prepared by
mixing Zn powder and agar binder at different concentrations to achieve the desired
conductivity and physical properties. Agar is an abundant natural polymer that does
not require tedious and costly processing or preparation. Agar is also a gel-forming
environmental friendly material. Meanwhile, the presence of KOH causes the
growth of ZnO needle structures to cover the Zn-active material. Zn-agar binder
without KOH produced the highest discharge capacity of 505 mAhg1. By contrast,
the addition of KOH reduced the discharge capacity. The introduction of Super P
improved the electrochemical performance of the batteries. The advantages of using
Super P in batteries include high purity, large area, and highly structured body. The
use of Super P additive in porous Zn anode enhanced the Zn-air battery discharge
capacity because of the efficient and better voltage stability obtained from such an
anode. The specific discharge capacity and power density of Zn anode with 2 wt%
Super P were 776 mAhg1 and 20 mWcm2, respectively. Morphological images
and structural properties were also analyzed to support these observations. Super P
acted as a bridge in the Zn powders and improved the electrochemical performance
of the Zn-air batteries.
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