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Small amounts of water in electrolyte for Si-air battery improves discharge performance

Researchers from Israel Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University report in a paper in the journal ChemSusChem on a Si–air/ionic liquid electrolyte battery whose performance improves with small amounts of water in the electrolyte.

Addition of 15 vol% water leads to an increase of 40% in the discharge capacity as compared to the capacity obtained using a pure ionic liquid electrolyte. However, if the water content increases above 20 vol%, the Si–air cell capacity dramatically decreases. The water–ionic liquid electrolyte mixture shows a maximum in the ionic conductivity with a water content of 10 vol%. In-depth studies indicate a reduced amount of discharge product at the air electrode using 15 vol% H2O electrolyte.

This study shows that exposing a Si–air battery to a humid environment does not result in capacity losses, but rather improves cell performance.

—Cohn et al.

Resources

  • Cohn, G., Macdonald, D. D. and Ein-Eli, Y. (2011), Remarkable Impact of Water on the Discharge Performance of a Silicon–Air Battery. ChemSusChem. doi: 10.1002/cssc.201100169

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