MnO2 Nanowires as an Electrode Material for Gel Polymer Electrolyte‐Based Zn‐Air Battery

Abstract

AbstractZn‐air batteries (ZABs) have drawn an attention due to their high energy density, less complicated chemistry, and relatively low cost. Electrocatalyst plays a significant role in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that occurs during the operation. Various valance states of manganese make MnO2 as an attractive electrocatalyst. In the present work, MnO2 nanowires with diameter of 80–90 nm are synthesized via hydrothermal route and tested for electrocatalytic performance in a comparative study of ZABs fabricated using liquid and gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs). The open circuit voltage (OCV) of device lies in the range of 1.35–1.4 V. GPEs based devices show higher stability and exhibited 45 cycles (20 min per cycle) having discharge plateau above 1.06 V at a discharge current density of 1.59 mA cm−2 while liquid electrolyte‐based devices show 20 cycles (4 min per cycle at discharge current rate of 3 mA cm−2).