Electrochemical Performance of MnO2‐based Air Cathodes for Zinc‐air Batteries

This paper compares the oxygen reduction on four MnO2-based air cathodes assembled in home-made electrochemical cells, with some particular observations on α-MnO2 cathode. The results show that the catalytic activity decreases in the following order: electrolytic MnO2 (EMD) > natural MnO2 (NMD) > β-MnO2 > α-MnO2. The maximum power density of the zinc-air battery with EMD as the catalyst reaches up to 141.8 mW cm−2 at the current density of 222.5 mA cm−2, which is about 60%, 20% and 10% higher than that of α-MnO2 (90.0 mW cm−2 at 120.3 mA cm−2), β-MnO2 (121.5 mW cm−2 at 150.4 mA cm−2) and NMD (128.2 mW cm−2 at 207.8 mA cm−2), respectively. It is believed that its unique crystal structure and biggest BET surface area make EMD have the smallest charge transfer resistance (Rct), thus EMD has the highest activity.

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