Free-Standing Poly (Acrylic) Acid / Potassium Hydroxide Based Polymer Electrolyte Membrane As Electrolyte for Printed Zinc/Silver Oxide Batteries

Abstract

Printable batteries have attracted great attention as an emerging power source for wearable electronics such as RFID tags, implantable medical devices etc. The need for environmentally friendly batteries with high energy density has led to the development of partially printed primary zinc-silver oxide batteries. It has been reported that printed Zn/Ag2O systems have low cost, lightweight and easy processing methods. A free-standing polymer membrane (FSM) made up of poly(acrylic) acid, poly(ethylene)oxide and potassium hydroxide has not been systematically studied for its application as an electrolyte in printed batteries. In this work, we have prepared and characterized FSM for its compatibility to be used as an electrolyte in a Zn/Ag2O systems by employing electrochemical, microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. Cyclic voltammetry is used to understand the electrochemical processes going on the electrode, charge-discharge curves are reported to present the specific capacity of the battery. For printed electrodes, ionic conductivity is of the order of 10-3 siemens.cm-1 transference number (Zn+), for Zn|| FSM||Zn (Printed zinc (Zn)) cell structure is 0.247.Further, a comparative study of FSM behavior with printed zinc and the zinc metal foil electrodes is done with an intention to understand the electrochemical behaviour of zinc electrodes in Zn/Ag2O all-solid-state battery device. Specific capacities of 3.604 and 2.495 mAh.cm-2are achieved for batteries having zinc printed and metal foil electrodes respectively. Though printed electrodes demonstrated better specific capacity, its repeatability remains an issue. Further work is being done to address the issue of electrode recyclability and performance repeatability.