Alkaline Zinc - Air Battery Zinc Electrode Of Organic Corrosion Inhibitor

Zinc air battery is an attractive candidate as a power source for electric vehicle from a viewpoint of cleanness, safety, high capacity and smooth discharge. In order to inhibit direct oxidation and zinc dendrites growth of zinc electrode, and improve the comprehensive properties of zinc-air battery finally, the effect of organic corrosion inhibitors on zinc electrode of zinc-air battery was investigated based on summarizing the literatures,The corrosion inhibiting effect of organic additives were tested with the classical hydrogen collection experiments. Results obtained showed that some organic additive, such as DAM, CTAB, citric acid and Tween-40, were able to inhibit the corrosion of zinc electrode. From the hydrogen collection experiments with various content of CTAB, citric acid and Tween-40, it was found that the best concentration of CTAB, citric acid and Tween-40 was 0.1%, 0.5% and 0.1% respectively, and the corrosion inhibiting efficiency for 0.5% citric acid was as high as 84.58%. Forthmore, cooperating corrosion inhibiting effects of citric acid with Tween-40 and CTAB were studied. It was shown that, although the cooperating effect of citric acid with CTAB was imperfect, the corrosion inhibiting effect was improved markedly by using citric acid and Tween-40 together and in this case; the corrosion inhibiting efficiency reached 89.93%.Tafel plot and cyclic voltammetry of zinc electrodes were also tested. It could be seen that organic corrosion inhibitors effectively inhibited the hydrogen evolution process of zinc electrodes, and raise the overpotential of hydrogen evolution process. The inhibiting effect of composite inhibitors was better than that of single inhibitors, which decreased the peak current from 142.15mA to 28.94mA.Using proper organic inhibitors together, the surface-active molecules of organic additives could form continuous molecules films,which may adsorb on the surface of zinc electrode and serve as physical barrier. Therefore, it is possible to separate the solvent molecules from the metals face, decrease the corrosion rate and inhibite the growth of zinc dendrites, and finally improve the electrochemical properties of zinc electrodes.