Effect of Cold-Working on the Discharge Performance of Commercially Pure Aluminum and AA7050 Alloy Anodes in Primary Alkaline Aluminum-air Battery

Abstract

This work evaluated the performance of annealed and cold-worked commercially pure Aluminum (AA1100) and AA7050 Aluminum alloy as the Aluminum-air battery (Al-air battery) anode in a 4 mol.l−1 KOH solution. The electrochemical performance, galvanostatic discharge behavior, and microstructure of the anodes after discharge were studied. Cold-worked anodes showed a more negative corrosion potential and a lower corrosion current density compared to annealed anodes, indicating a higher electrochemical activity and an enhanced anti-corrosion behavior. In addition, the anodic efficiency and capacity density of the cold-worked anodes increased significantly compared to the annealed anode by increasing the discharge current density from 20 mA.cm−2 to 100 mA.cm−2. The results of this work indicated that cold-worked pure Al and AA7050 Al alloy has better potential as anode materials in alkaline Al-air batteries than the annealed Al anode.