Preliminary analysis of the cellulose-based battery separator

Abstract

The worldwide energy demand is increasing due to the development of advanced technologies in various industries. Therefore, alternative and safe energy sources should be implemented in order to keep the environment clean and sustainable. Aluminum-air batteries have been recognized as a potential energy storage system candidate for the post lithium era. Unfortunately, serious corrosion of the anode in the aqueous aluminum-air battery will reduce the energy density. In this work, a novel idea of using cellulose-based separators for the Al-air battery is proposed to achieve a greener and cheaper battery. It was constructed by applying aluminum plate as an anode, activated carbon as an air–cathode, manganese oxide as electrocatalyst and sea water as the electrolyte. The performance of the self-fabricated water hyacinth cellulose nanofibrils separator is compared with the filter paper. The results showed that the performance of the water hyacinth cellulose nanofibrils separator with polyethylene glycol 400 binder in the ratio of 85 wt%:15 wt% is better than that of the commercial filter paper. The total discharge time is about 307.85 min using 10 mA of discharge current. The cellulose separator can be optimized to make a better aluminum-air battery.