Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug 21;11(9):1486.
doi: 10.3390/ma11091486.

An X-ray Tomographic Study of Rechargeable Zn/MnO₂ Batteries

Markus Osenberg  1   2 , Ingo Manke  3 , André Hilger  4   5 , Nikolay Kardjilov  6 , John Banhart  7   8
Affiliations

An X-ray Tomographic Study of Rechargeable Zn/MnO₂ Batteries

Markus Osenberg et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

We present non-destructive and non-invasive in operando X-ray tomographic investigations of the charge and discharge behavior of rechargeable alkaline-manganese (RAM) batteries (Zn-MnO₂ batteries). Changes in the three-dimensional structure of the zinc anode and the MnO₂ cathode material after several charge/discharge cycles were analyzed. Battery discharge leads to a decrease in the zinc particle sizes, revealing a layer-by-layer dissolving behavior. During charging, the particles grow again to almost their initial size and shape. After several cycles, the particles sizes slowly decrease until most of the particles become smaller than the spatial resolution of the tomography. Furthermore, the number of cracks in the MnO₂ bulk continuously increases and the separator changes its shape. The results are compared to the behavior of a conventional primary cell that was also charged and discharged several times.

Keywords: X-ray tomography; alkaline manganese batteries; in operando; in situ; zinc powder.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sketch illustrating the reconstruction and data preparation process. After capturing all 1500 radiographic projection images—one shown in (a)—a tomographic 3D data set is reconstructed in (b). After binarization (c), the individual zinc particles are labelled (and, for example, color-coded as in (d)), which allows for a shape analysis of each individual particle.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Battery capacities remaining after a given number of discharge cycles, (b) discharge curves of pristine rechargeable alkaline-manganese (RAM) batteries at different discharge currents, (c) total volume of all segmented zinc particles and (d) discharge curves of a RAM battery (100 mA) during different cycles.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Tomographic cross sections showing three different cycle states for each of the four batteries studied. (a) RAM battery discharged at a current of 100 mA, (b) 200 mA, (c) 400 mA, and (d) alkaline manganese primary cell discharged at a current of 200 mA.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Overview over four selected particles in (a) RAM battery discharged with 100 mA, (b) 200 mA, (c) 400 mA, and (d) primary alkaline-manganese cell discharged with 200 mA.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Particle size distributions in RAMs discharged at (a) 100 mA, (b) 200 mA, and (c) 400 mA and (d) primary cell discharged at 200 mA.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Size distributions of the zinc particles in the discharged RAM cell. (a) Pristine and (b) after the 10th cycle (discharge current 200 mA).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Comparative cut of the primary cell (a) and the RAM battery (b). Both cells are shown in their pristine state.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Tomographic cross section of the primary cell after 12 cycles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Linden D., Reddy T.B. Handbook of Batteries. 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill; New York, NY, USA: 2002.
    1. Harting K., Kunz U., Turek T. Zinc-Air Batteries: Prospects and Challenges for Future Improvement. Z. Phys. Chem. 2012;226:151–166. doi: 10.1524/zpch.2012.0152. - DOI
    1. Li Y.G., Gong M., Liang Y.Y., Feng J., Kim J.E., Wang H.L., Hong G.S., Zhang B., Dai H.J. Advanced zinc-air batteries based on high-performance hybrid electrocatalysts. Nat. Commun. 2013:4. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2812. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee D.U., Park H.W., Higgins D., Nazar L., Chen Z.W. Highly Active Graphene Nanosheets Prepared via Extremely Rapid Heating as Efficient Zinc-Air Battery Electrode Material. J. Electrochem. Soc. 2013;160:F910–F915. doi: 10.1149/2.016309jes. - DOI
    1. Chen Z., Choi J.Y., Wang H.J., Li H., Chen Z.W. Highly durable and active non-precious air cathode catalyst for zinc air battery. J. Power Sources. 2011;196:3673–3677. doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.12.047. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources