Aluminum Air Battery: How Do They Work? (Plus DIY) , Aluminum Air Battery Experiment, Procedure of Making Simple Aluminum Air Battery, Working Principle of Aluminum Air Battery, Chemical Reaction of Aluminum Air Battery, Aluminum Air Battery Equation,

1. Presented by
Dr. R. RAJA, M.E., Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor, Department of EEE,
Muthayammal Engineering College, (Autonomous)
Namakkal (Dt), Rasipuram – 637408
MUTHAYAMMAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE
(An Autonomous Institution)
(Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Accredited by NAAC, NBA & Affiliated to Anna University),
Rasipuram - 637 408, Namakkal Dist., Tamil Nadu, India.
Aluminum Air Battery: How Do They Work? (Plus DIY)

2. Aluminum Air Battery: How Do They Work? (Plus DIY)
 Batteries can be quite heavy. This disadvantage prevents batteries from being a
source of energy in many different appliances and applications where being
lightweight is crucial.
 An aluminum air battery overcomes this issue. It uses air as a cathode,
significantly reducing its weight.
 In an aluminum air battery, aluminum is used as an anode, and air (the
oxygen in the air) is used as cathode.
 This results in the energy density – i.e. energy produced per unit weight of the
battery – very high compared to other conventional batteries.
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3.  Despite this an aluminum air battery is not commercially produced, mainly due
to the high production cost of the anode, as well as issues with corrosion of the
aluminium anode due to the carbon dioxide in air.
 Because of this, use of this battery is restricted to mainly military applications.
 Aluminum air battery’s high energy density mean that they have a high
potential of being used in electrical vehicles.
 Making an aluminum air battery is quite simple – and can be done using simple
household goods. We’ll go over a DIY (Do It Yourself) guide to making an
aluminum air battery.
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4. Aluminum Air Battery Experiment
 For creating this experimentally we require,
1. Aluminum foil.
2. Saturated solution of water and salt
3. Bloating papers
4. Fine charcoal dust.
5. Two small pieces of electric wires and
6. One light emitting diode.
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5. Procedure of Making Simple Aluminum Air Battery
 Just take a piece of aluminum foil and spread it on a table. In a pot make a
saturated solution of water and salt. Take a piece of bloating paper. Get the
piece of bloating paper soaked by saturated salt solution.
 Then get the soaked piece of bloating paper spread over the aluminum foil.
Now put some fine dust of charcoal over the bloating paper.
 After keeping a non-insulated wire lead in the charcoal dust, cover it with
another piece of salt solution soaked bloating paper of same size.
 Now tightly roll the total thing in such a way that, no charcoal dust can touch
directly the aluminum foil and insulated portion of the lead wire comes out
from one end of the roll.
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6.  Now take another wire and fix the non insulated portion of the wire to the
aluminum foil.
 Now if we connect a low rated light emitting diode (LED) with these two leads
(one from charcoal and other from aluminum foil) and press the roll with our
fingers, the LED will glow.
 This is how an aluminum air battery can be created in our home.
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7. Working Principle of Aluminum Air Battery
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 As in the figure right, an aluminum air battery has air cathode which may be made of
silver based catalyst and it helps to block CO2 to enter in the battery but it allows O2 to
enter in the electrolyte.

8.  Then this oxygen reacts with H2O in KOH electrolyte solution takes electrons
from solution and creates OH– ions.
 These ions then associate with Al anode and create Al(OH)3 and release
electrons.
 These electrons then flow to the air anode from aluminum cathode through the
external circuit for compensating lack of electrons in the electrolyte solution
due to cathode reduction reaction.
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9. Chemical Reaction of Aluminum Air Battery
 Four aluminum atoms react with 3 oxygen molecules and 6 water molecules
and produce 4 aluminium hydroxides
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10. Aluminum Air Battery Equation
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11.  Phinergy, a well known Israeli developer company focused on utilization of
metal air battery like aluminum air battery and zinc air battery.
 The specialty of air metal battery is that they take oxygen from ambient air.
Aluminum air battery has very high energy density, it is as high as 300 Wh per
one ib of aluminum. Its power density is also very high, around 30 Watt/lb.
 This type of battery cannot be electrically recharged. Basically this is a primary
battery.
 But the difficulty of recharging can be overcame by mechanical recharging
process. Mechanical recharging of aluminum air cell is done by replacing
aluminum electrode. In this process, the battery can be turned to its fully
charged condition from discharged battery cell stack
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12.  Because of its high energy and power densities, facilities of mechanical
recharging, aluminum air battery is may be the most suitable alternative of
petroleum fuel for automobile in near future. These battery also have very low
environmental impact.
 The main disadvantage of this technology is, the reaction of CO2 with
aluminum. Aluminum gets very easily affected by corrosion due to the presence
of CO2 in the air.
 This problem can be overcame by introducing special air electrode which can
prevent CO2 to reach to the aluminum sheet. Phynergy has developed an air
electrode with silver based catalyst and this structure lets O2 enter into
aluminum sheet and prevents CO2 to enter.
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13. Thank You
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