Potentiostatic Cyclic Voltammetry Research Articles

“Can” You Really Make a Battery Out of That?

This classroom activity introduces students to battery electrochemistry through the construction of a simple battery made from household products. Students will use a set of simple design rules to improve the performance of the battery, and power a light emitting diode. The electrochemical performance of the batteries is characterized using potentiostatic cyclic voltammetry and chronoampometry, and suggestions for implementing this activity into a high school teaching environment are presented. Designed for United Kingdom secondary schools and exam boards, the supplementary teaching package contains problem sheets and activities appropriate for students age 14 and up.

Electrochemical properties of TiO2 nanotube-Li4Ti5O12 composite anodes for lithium-ion batteries

For application as an anode material in lithium batteries, composite anodes consisting of TiO2 nanotubes (TNT) and Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) nanocrystalline particles are prepared by hydrothermal reaction of rutile TiO2 particles, physical blending with LTO, and subsequent heat treatment at 300 °C. The TNT-LTO composites with varying the composition are characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, potentiostatic cyclic voltammetry, and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests at various current rates. With higher LTO content, short TNTs with the average tube diameter of 10 nm are distributed among the potato-shaped LTO particles with the average diameter of 200 nm. At higher content of TNT, however, the LTO particles are sparsely distributed in the fibrillar aggregates of TNT with more lengthened image. As a result, the samples of TNT:LTO = 2:8 and 4:6 show superior cycle performance and high-rate capability, mainly due to their higher electrode densities to yield nanotubular TNT distributed on and supported by potato-shaped LTO nanoparticles.