Effect of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide as an electrolyte additive on secondary discharge performance of aluminum-air battery

The primary aluminum-air battery has a broad development prospect. When the conventional flowing electrolyte aluminum-air battery is standby, the electrolyte is pumped out. Therefore, the residual lye on the surface of the aluminum electrode leads to the corrosion of the aluminum alloy, which leads to the lag of the battery restart performance. In order to solve the problems of electrode corrosion and startup lag in the standby state of the flow battery system, the standby protection of the aluminum-air battery using electrolyte additives is proposed. Secondary discharge test and characterization are used to investigate the ability of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) to effectively reduce the surface corrosion of aluminum alloy. Molecular dynamics simulation shows that adding CTAB to the electrolyte can form a hydrophobic adsorption layer on the aluminum surface and effectively reduce the residual lye. The results show that adding CTAB to the electrolyte can greatly improve the corrosion problem caused by residual lye on the aluminum alloy surface in the standby state. Moreover, the addition of CTAB does not have a bad effect on the performance of the two electrodes in the battery. Compared with the KOH solution without additive, the restart time of the aluminum-air battery after adding 0.6 mM CTAB is shortened by 97.27%.