Author :
Martin, J.J. ; Neburchilov, V. ; Wang, H. ; Qu, W.
Author_Institution :
NRC-Inst. for Fuel Cell Innovation, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Abstract :
Metal-air batteries and variant technologies have the potential to drastically increase the power density and decrease the cost of energy storage. This paper highlights some of the compositions, designs and methods of fabrication of air-cathodes for metal-air batteries. The more promising compositions for air cathodes are based on individual oxides, or mixtures of such, with a spinel, perovskite, or pyrochlore structure: MnO2, Ag, Co3O4, La2O3, LaNiO3, NiCo2O4, LaMnO3, LaNiO3, etc. These compositions provide the optimal balance of activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction and chemical stability in an alkali electrolyte. The sol-gel and reverse micelle methods supply the most uniform distribution of the catalyst on carbon and the highest catalyst BET surface area. It is shown that the design of the air cathode, including types of carbon black, binding agents, current collectors, Teflon membranes, thermal treatment of the GDL, and catalyst layers, has a strong effect on performance.
Keywords :
cobalt compounds; electrochemical electrodes; electrolytes; fuel cells; lanthanum compounds; manganese compounds; nickel compounds; secondary cells; silver; sol-gel processing; Ag; Co3O4; La2O3; LaMnO3; LaNiO3; MnO2; NiCo2O4; air cathodes; alkali electrolyte; chemical stability; energy storage; fuel cells; metal-air batteries; oxygen reduction reaction; power density; reverse micelle method; sol-gel method; Batteries; Cathodes; Chemicals; Costs; Design methodology; Energy storage; Fabrication; Fuel cells; Stability; Surface treatment; Aluminum alloys; Aluminum compounds; Batteries; Cathodes; Electrochemical electrodes; Fuel cells; Iron compounds; Lithium compounds; Nickel compounds; Zinc compounds;
