Zinc-air flow batteries exhibit high energy density and offer several appealing advantages. However, their low efficiency of zinc utilization resulted from passivation and corrosion of the zinc anodes has limited their broad application. In this work, ethanol, which is considered as an environmentally friendly solvent, is examined as an electrolyte additive to potassium hydroxide (KOH) aqueous electrolyte to improve electrochemical performance of the batteries. Besides, the effects of adding different percentages of ethanol (0-50% v/v) to 8 M KOH aqueous electrolyte were investigated and discussed. Cyclic voltammograms revealed that the presence of 5-10% v/v ethanol is attributed to the enhancement of zinc dissolution and the hindrance of zinc anode passivation. Also, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy confirmed that adding 5-10% v/v ethanol could effectively suppress the formation of passivating layers on the active surface of the zinc anodes. Though the addition of ethanol increased solution resistance and hence slightly decreased the discharge potential of the batteries, a significant enhancement of discharge capacity and energy density could be sought. Also, galvanostatic discharge results indicated that the battery using 10% v/v ethanol electrolyte exhibited the highest electrochemical performance with 30% increase in discharge capacity and 16% increase in specific energy over that of KOH electrolyte without ethanol.
Zinc-air batteries are a promising technology for large-scale electricity storage. However, their practical deployment has been hindered by some issues related to corrosion and passivation of the zinc anode in an alkaline electrolyte. In this work, anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and nonionic surfactant Pluronic F-127 (P127) are examined their applicability to enhance the battery performances. Pristine zinc granules in 7 M KOH, pristine zinc granules in 0-8 mM SDS/7 M KOH, pristine zinc granules in 0-1000 ppm P127/7 M KOH, and SDS coated zinc granules in 7 M KOH were examined. Cyclic voltammograms, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy confirmed that using 0.2 mM SDS or 100 ppm P127 effectively suppressed the anode corrosion and passivation. Nevertheless, direct coating SDS on the zinc anode showed adverse effects because the thick layer of SDS coating acted as a passivating film and blocked the removal of the anode oxidation product from the zinc surface. Furthermore, the performances of the zinc-air flow batteries were studied. Galvanostatic discharge results indicated that the improvement of discharge capacity and energy density could be sought by the introduction of the surfactants to the KOH electrolyte. The enhancement of specific discharge capacity for 30% and 24% was observed in the electrolyte containing 100 ppm P127 and 0.2 mM SDS, respectively.
Noninvasive transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and methylphenidate (MP) are associated with motor recovery after stroke. Based on the potentially complementary mechanisms of these interventions, we examined whether there is an interactive effect between MP and tDCS. In this preliminary study, we randomized subacute stroke subjects to receive tDCS alone, MP alone or combination of tDCS and MP. A blinded rater measured safety, hand function, and cortical excitability before and after treatment. None of the treatments caused any major or severe adverse effects or induced significant differences in cortical excitability. Analysis of variance of gain score, as measured by Purdue pegboard test, showed a significant between-group difference (F(2,6)=12.167, p=0.008). Post hoc analysis showed that the combination treatment effected greater Purdue pegboard gain scores than tDCS alone (p=0.017) or MP alone (p=0.01). Our preliminary data with nine subjects shows an interesting dissociation between motor function improvement and lack of motor corticospinal plasticity changes as indexed by transcranial magnetic stimulation in subacute stroke subjects.