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Development of flexible textile aluminium-air battery prototype

Development of flexible textile aluminium-air battery prototype There is one component that virtually any embedded wearable needs—a power source. This paper proposes an energy source, which contains no harmful substances, can be stored in a stand-by dry state for indefinite time period, is flexible and has tactile characteristics similar to that of textile. The main feature of this energy source is the separation of the electrolyte and the electrodes—the electrolyte is applied only when the battery needs to be activated. This makes storage time in a dry state virtually infinite. It expands their potential use to storage solutions and healthcare/health monitoring solutions, because the design of the battery allows it to be used as an active sensor, which generates electric current, when it detects liquid. We stress that this solution is suitable for specific applications only, outlined in the paper. The main components of the battery include aluminium anode, air cathode and the cotton shell. The design includes only textile-based materials, which ensure greater flexibility and better fusion with textile materials, where the battery is intended to be integrated. Besides that, results of the experiments with multi-cell battery prototype are presented. Keywords Aluminium-air battery · Flexible battery · Smart textiles · Embroidery Introduction not feasible to use an external power supply in this setting. However, most commercially available chemical energy The alarm is intended for use by children during their sleep sources pose a certain degree of hazard due to their compo- to treat enuresis. The prototype of the enuresis alarm sys- nents—they either contain toxic materials or pose explosion tem consisted of a shirt with detachable embroidered control risk if not wired/charged properly. One of the most promis- circuit and power supply unit, as well as underpants with ing alternatives was to use aluminium-air batteries, due to embroidered enuresis sensor. The idea of developing a flex- their costs, high theoretic energy density and non-toxicity ible aluminium-air battery came from our previous research, [4, 7–9]. Besides that, since these batteries can be used with which focussed on developing a textile enuresis alarm for saline electrolyte, it is possible to use urine or other liquids children [1]. The power supply unit of the original system for their activation. Such battery is activated right after the was based on Li-Ion battery and was integrated into the shirt. liquid is applied and reaches its maximum output as soon as The system needs an integrated power supply, since it is it is sufficiently soaked. According to our experience, this takes just a few seconds. To be fully integratable into smart textiles, and/or wearable human/animal care products, these * Miguel Carvalho batteries must satisfy a number of requirements: materials migcar@det.uminho.pt should be non-toxic and safe, they should be flexible to Aleksandrs Vališevskis ensure the comfort of the final wearable/textile product [1 ]. aleksandrs.valisevskis@rtu.lv Another practical consideration was to make this cell modu- Uģis Briedis lar, which means that cell design enables one to connect ugis.briedis@rtu.lv them in series to improve overall electrical performance. Fernando Ferreira It is known from experiments that the potential differ - fnunes@det.uminho.pt ence of aluminium-air batteries with saline electrolyte is approximately 0.7 V. Thus, in order for the battery to power Institute of Design Technologies, Riga Technical University, Ķīpsalas 6, Riga, Latvia common semiconductor components without further conver- sion, 3 to 4 cells must be connected in series (which would Textile Engineering Department, University of Minho, Campus de Azurem Guimaraes, Guimaraes, Portugal Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 6 Page 2 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 increase the voltage 3 or fourfold). The size of the cells can The main objective of this study is the development of be adapted to the necessary design of the product and appli- a multi-cell battery, which is based on the improved cell cation of the battery. design [11]. A single-cell is a flexible element of arbitrary The current study described in this paper is based on shape, usually square, with two electrodes—an anode and our previous work. More specifically, the original flexible a cathode. By combining these cells in a particular way, it aluminium-air battery was a combination of metal meshes is possible either to increase voltage (by connecting cells in and textile materials [10]. This design was later improved series) or to increase current (by connecting cells in paral- by replacing pure metal meshes with metal-coated textile lel). It is intended to use the battery in a dry state. The elec- materials [11], which ensured better flexibility and elimi- trolyte is added later and provokes activation of the system, nated problems with copper mesh oxidation. which performs an operation. Thus, the following special This paper focuses on electrical properties and multi-cell considerations should be taken during the design of such design of such batteries. a multi-cell battery: (1) cells must have an open design, so that the external electrolyte can reach all the cells; (2) at the same time, the cells must be sealed from one another, and (3) Batteries for smart textiles measures should be taken for directing electrolyte into indi- vidual cells and avoiding build-up of excessive electrolyte, Smart textile field has been booming during the last decades which can make detrimental electric connections between and one of the main challenges that have been acknowledged cells. was related to finding an energy source that is suitable for integration into wearables and particularly into smart tex- tiles. Lately, a number of important studies have been pub- Components of the original al‑air battery lished, which address just this problem. These studies focus on new materials and new approaches to powering smart The original battery [10] consists of a copper mesh cathode textile; however, they will not be discussed here, since an with carbon granules, and an aluminium mesh anode. The extensive overview can be found in other papers [2, 3, 5, single-cell battery has shown promising results (open-circuit 6, 11]. voltage V = 800 mV, short-circuit current I = 50 mA) OC  SC In this paper, we focus in particular on a new approach [10]. Although the choice of the materials made the battery to the development of energy source for smart textiles that less flexible, so further studies have been conducted, which is based on the idea of electrolyte and electrode separation resulted in replacing all the metal meshes with alternative [11]. This approach has a number of advantages, such as textile-based materials, without sacrificing the performance indefinite storage time and the possibility to use this bat- [11]. The improved design of single-cell flexible textile alu- tery as a self-energised wetness sensor [10]. This enables minium-air battery is shown and explicated in Fig. 1. to use the proposed design in medical applications, which For aluminium anode Mte x aluminium-textile composite often require a reaction to the appearance of bodily fluids. fabric is used, which has textile base and textile-like tactile Examples include enuresis alarm systems, disposable bed feel. Electric characteristics of this material are comparable mats, diapers for paediatric, elderly and stationary patients. to those of pure metal mesh. It is coated with aluminium, Other applications include use in cold storage facilities and using thermal, binder-free coating process [12]. Since the freezers, functioning as an electrochemical indicator, which outer layer is made of aluminium, it has all the necessary changes its state in case of temperature rise. These applica- electrochemical characteristics for use in the battery. tions are possible, because the batteries contain no toxic Cathode current collector is made using Shieldex® Buda- materials. Aqueous electrolyte is used for battery activation pest, which is 99% pure silver-plated polyamide fabric and (should electrolytic properties of the liquid not be enough for has surface resistivity < 1.0 Ohms/ [13]. Silver plating makes battery successful activation, NaCl can be included into the it particularly resistant to oxidation, which was an issue in inner layers of the dry battery (concentration 15%), which the original design [10]. dissolves and enhances the redox reaction). Electrolytic Outer shells are made of common cotton fabric, which properties usually are ensured by dissolved ions. ensures necessary tactile characteristics of the whole The battery described in [11] is completely made from package. textile-based materials. Silver-coated permeable fabric is Optional NaCl can be added to the air cathode. Its use and used as cathode current collector, which eliminates problems concentration should be evaluated based on the liquid, which with oxidation, that the original copper current collector was is expected to activate the battery. Should its ion concentra- prone to [10]. Besides that, its characteristics are comparable tion not be enough to act as an electrolyte, NaCl should be to that of the original battery, made using metal meshes. added accordingly. 1 3 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 Page 3 of 6 6 Fig. 1 Flexible textile Al-Air battery cell. 1—aluminium anode, Mtex aluminium-textile composite material; 2—cathode current collector, Shieldex Budapest conductive textile; 3—carbon granule and optional NaCl mixture to increase its concentration in electrolyte; 4— cotton enclosure of the cell; 5— cotton enclosure of the cathode; 6—sewn joints; 7—activating liquid from outer environment that is applied to the cell and that acts as an electrolyte It was demonstrated that the newly chosen materials show Multi‑cell battery design promising results and their performance is equivalent to that of pure metal elements, which were used in the original Previous studies [11] show that better results are obtained design of the flexible Al-air battery and had caused various when individual cells are arranged on a plane, rather than issues, mostly due to oxidation [11]. stacked on top of each other. This is because such an arrange- After suitable materials for flexible textile aluminium- ment ensures a better electrical insulation of the cells. Thus, air battery cells have been determined, it is now possible to the biggest challenges in combining flexible textile cells on a focus on the design of multi-cell battery and the arrangement textile substrate is to ensure their insulation by directing the of individual cells. flow of electrolyte and making connections in an appropriate The modular design of the battery enables one to choose way. This can be achieved by proper insulation of the indi- an arbitrary number of cells and their arrangement on the vidual cells with appropriate sealants. Cells are arranged on plane. Since one cell of the chosen type produces about a plane. Their stacking on top of each other does not allow to 0.7  V, it was decided to prepare a battery with 4 cells, ensure a proper insulation and flow of electrolyte at the same connected in series. This arrangement should quadruple time, which decreases performance of the battery. the potential and gives an output voltage of about 2.8  V, The designed battery prototype (see Fig. 2) presents four which is enough for most low-power semiconductor elec- cells connected in series. The cells are arranged on a plane tronics and sensors. In this case, maximum current remains and are adjacent to each other in a way that the cathode of unchanged—should the application require to increase the one cell overlays the anode of the next cell, etc. Since the current and not the voltage, the cells should be arranged materials are textile-based, the connection is made by sew- in parallel. In the described battery, the cells are arranged ing the electrodes together with conductive thread. The cells linearly, because it was intended for use in a wristband are incapsulated into two layers of non-permeable fabric, prototype. using commercially available seam sealer. The lower layer is made of solid rectangular piece of fabric and the upper layer is made of the same fabric with four openings that allow electrolyte to reach the cells. The sealant is applied on the cathode/anode connection area and around the cells, to insulate them. The fabric has hydrophobic coating, which Fig. 2 Multi-cell battery design, side view 1 3 6 Page 4 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 minimises electrolyte accumulation on the upper layer of 60  mA. Due to the intended application of the battery, the battery and detrimental connection bridges, as well as OCV change over time was not measured. However it was it enables the electrolyte to be distributed among the cells. observed that upon introduction of the electrolyte aluminium The only non-insulated electrodes are the anode of the first anode starts to deteriorate and should not be expected to last cell and the cathode of the last cell, which are the poles of for more than a few days, even without load. the multi-cell battery. To be consistent with our previous experiments [11], the To test the actual characteristics of the newly designed capacity of the battery was measured by putting it under a battery, a multi-cell (4 cells) flexible textile aluminium- constant 22Ω load. As was stated before, this particular bat- air battery prototype was developed (see Fig.  3), which tery design is not intended for long-time storage in the active consists of four sealed cells. The battery can produce 3 V state—it is used to perform a particular task upon activation upon activation, which enables it to power semiconductors and should be reset afterwards. Voltage/current change over without the need of additional voltage conversion or energy time under load can be seen in Figs. 5 and 6. accumulation. As can be seen from Fig.  5, voltage drops to around The basic characteristics of the battery are discussed in 50 mA 120 min after activation under a load of 22Ω. Current the next section. change over time is shown in Fig. 6, after 120 min it drops to around 2 mA. These figures show that it is practically possi - ble to use the battery for powering demanding semiconduc- Results and discussion tor electronics, such as wireless transmitters and sensors for a limited time of a few hours, depending on the actual load. The current–voltage curve of a 4-cell battery is presented Only one cycle was performed during the experiments in Fig. 4. As can be seen, it produces open-circuit voltage due to a number of factors: (1) this particular design of (OCV) of almost 3 V and has short-circuit current of almost the primary battery is not intended for repetitive use, but Fig. 3 Prototype of a multi-cell flexible textile Al-Air battery with cells arranged on a plane Fig. 4 Current–Voltage charac- 4-cell battery teristic of a 4-cell battery 00.5 11.5 22.5 33.5 Voltage, V 1 3 Current, mA Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 Page 5 of 6 6 Fig. 5 Voltage change over time Voltage over mewith 22Ωload of a 4-cell battery with 22Ω load applied 020406080 100 120 140 Time, min. Fig. 6 Current change over time Currentover me with 22 Ω load of a flexible textile battery with 22Ω load applied 020406080 100 120 140 Time, min. rather for one-time activation to change the state of the Conclusion system, (2) aluminium anode oxidises and deteriorates quickly in the presence of electrolyte, (3) thus, to re- This paper presents a further development of an alumin- activate the battery for next cycles, physical replacement ium-air battery that was proposed in [10] and improved in of the aluminium anode is necessary, which, after drying [11]. The paper shows how individual cells can be com- of the remaining components, should return its electrical bined to obtain higher electrical characteristics, which characteristics to the original level. are enough to power common semiconductor electronics. This completes an important step on the path to devel- Charts are presented, which show the operational charac- oping a functional multi-cell energy source that can be teristics of such batteries. used in wide variety of applications. Due to oxidation of aluminium anode, this kind of The focus of further studies will be on construction batteries are not intended for long-term storage in acti- improvements, practical usability and further study of cell vated state. However, they can be integrated into the final deterioration under various loads. 1 3 Voltage, mV Current, mA 6 Page 6 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 5. Normann, M., Kyosev, Y., Ehrmann, A., Schwarz-Pfeiffer, A.: product and remain in inactive state without electrolyte Multilayer textile-based woven batteries. In: Kyosev, Y. (ed.) for virtually unlimited time, which expands their potential Recent developments in braiding and narrow weaving. Springer, use to storage solutions and various healthcare products. Cham (2016). https ://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29932 -7_13 6. Resuli, R., Turhan, I., Ehrmann, A., Blachowicz, T.: Textile-based Acknowledgements This work has been supported by the European batteries with nanofiber interlayer. AIMS. Energy. (2018). https:// Regional Development Fund within the project no. 1.1.1.1/16/A/020 doi.org/10.3934/energ y.2018.2.261 “Synthesis of textile surface coating modified in nano-level and ener - 7. Li, Q., Bjerrum, N.J.: Aluminum as anode for energy storage and getically independent measurement system integration in smart cloth- conversion: a review. J. Power. Sour. 110(2), 1–10 (2002). (ISSN: ing with functions of medical monitoring”. 03787753) 8. Yang, S., Knickle, H.: Design and analysis of aluminum/air bat- tery system for electric vehicles. J. Power. Sour. 112(1), 162–173 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri- (2002). (ISSN: 03787753) bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta- 9. Liu, Y., Sun, Q., Li, W., Adair, K.R., Li, J., Sun, X.: A comprehen- tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long sive review on recent progress in aluminum–air batteries. Green as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, Energy Env 2(3), 246–277 (2017). https ://doi.or g/10.1016/j. provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes gee.2017.06.006. (ISSN 2468-0257) were made. The images or other third party material in this article are 10. Briedis, U., Vališevskis, A., Zelča, Z.: Flexible aluminium-air bat- included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated tery for enuresis alarm system. In: 16th international scientific otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in conference "engineering for rural development": Proceedings. the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not Latvia, Jelgava, Jelgava (16) 619–624. ISSN 1691–3043. Avail- permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will able from: doi: https ://doi.or g/10.22616 /ERDev 2017.16.N123 need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a (2017) copy of this licence, visit http://creativ ecommons .or g/licenses/b y/4.0/. 11. Vališevskis, A., Briedis, U., Juchnevičiene, Ž, Juciene, M., Car- valho, M.: Design improvement of flexible textile aluminium-air battery. J Text Inst 12, 1–6 (2019). https: //doi.org/10.1080/00405 References 000.2019.16765 21. (ISSN 0040-5000. e-ISSN 1754-2340) 12. Frenzelit GmbH. Mtex Metal-textile compound materials, bro- chure. Frenzelit GmbH. BE1/03.03/02/BE (2017) 1. Briedis, U., Vališevskis, A., Grecka, M.: Development of a smart 13. Statex Productions- und Vertriebs GmbH. Shieldex Budapest No. garment prototype with enuresis alarm using an embroidery- 1101701, technical data sheet. Statex Productions- und Vertriebs machine-based technique for the integration of electronic com- GmbH. 25.04.13/03 (2013) ponents. Procedia. Comput. Sci. 104, 369–374 (2016). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.procs .2017.01.147. (ISSN 1877-0509) Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to 2. Jost, K., Dion, K., Gogotsi, Y.: Textile energy storage in perspec- jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. tive. J. Mater. Chem. A2, 10776–10787 (2014) 3. Jost, K., Pérez, C., Mcdonough, J., Presser, V., Heon, M., Dion, G., Gogotsi, Y.: Carbon coated textiles for flexible energy stor - age. Energy. Environ. Sci. 4, 5060–5067 (2011). h t t p s : / / d o i . org/10.1039/C1EE0 2421C 4. Avoundjian, A., Galvan, V., Gomez, F.A.: An inexpensive paper- based aluminum-air battery. Micromachines 8, 222 (2017) 1 3 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Springer Journals

Development of flexible textile aluminium-air battery prototype

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Abstract

There is one component that virtually any embedded wearable needs—a power source. This paper proposes an energy source, which contains no harmful substances, can be stored in a stand-by dry state for indefinite time period, is flexible and has tactile characteristics similar to that of textile. The main feature of this energy source is the separation of the electrolyte and the electrodes—the electrolyte is applied only when the battery needs to be activated. This makes storage time in a dry state virtually infinite. It expands their potential use to storage solutions and healthcare/health monitoring solutions, because the design of the battery allows it to be used as an active sensor, which generates electric current, when it detects liquid. We stress that this solution is suitable for specific applications only, outlined in the paper. The main components of the battery include aluminium anode, air cathode and the cotton shell. The design includes only textile-based materials, which ensure greater flexibility and better fusion with textile materials, where the battery is intended to be integrated. Besides that, results of the experiments with multi-cell battery prototype are presented. Keywords Aluminium-air battery · Flexible battery · Smart textiles · Embroidery Introduction not feasible to use an external power supply in this setting. However, most commercially available chemical energy The alarm is intended for use by children during their sleep sources pose a certain degree of hazard due to their compo- to treat enuresis. The prototype of the enuresis alarm sys- nents—they either contain toxic materials or pose explosion tem consisted of a shirt with detachable embroidered control risk if not wired/charged properly. One of the most promis- circuit and power supply unit, as well as underpants with ing alternatives was to use aluminium-air batteries, due to embroidered enuresis sensor. The idea of developing a flex- their costs, high theoretic energy density and non-toxicity ible aluminium-air battery came from our previous research, [4, 7–9]. Besides that, since these batteries can be used with which focussed on developing a textile enuresis alarm for saline electrolyte, it is possible to use urine or other liquids children [1]. The power supply unit of the original system for their activation. Such battery is activated right after the was based on Li-Ion battery and was integrated into the shirt. liquid is applied and reaches its maximum output as soon as The system needs an integrated power supply, since it is it is sufficiently soaked. According to our experience, this takes just a few seconds. To be fully integratable into smart textiles, and/or wearable human/animal care products, these * Miguel Carvalho batteries must satisfy a number of requirements: materials migcar@det.uminho.pt should be non-toxic and safe, they should be flexible to Aleksandrs Vališevskis ensure the comfort of the final wearable/textile product [1 ]. aleksandrs.valisevskis@rtu.lv Another practical consideration was to make this cell modu- Uģis Briedis lar, which means that cell design enables one to connect ugis.briedis@rtu.lv them in series to improve overall electrical performance. Fernando Ferreira It is known from experiments that the potential differ - fnunes@det.uminho.pt ence of aluminium-air batteries with saline electrolyte is approximately 0.7 V. Thus, in order for the battery to power Institute of Design Technologies, Riga Technical University, Ķīpsalas 6, Riga, Latvia common semiconductor components without further conver- sion, 3 to 4 cells must be connected in series (which would Textile Engineering Department, University of Minho, Campus de Azurem Guimaraes, Guimaraes, Portugal Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 6 Page 2 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 increase the voltage 3 or fourfold). The size of the cells can The main objective of this study is the development of be adapted to the necessary design of the product and appli- a multi-cell battery, which is based on the improved cell cation of the battery. design [11]. A single-cell is a flexible element of arbitrary The current study described in this paper is based on shape, usually square, with two electrodes—an anode and our previous work. More specifically, the original flexible a cathode. By combining these cells in a particular way, it aluminium-air battery was a combination of metal meshes is possible either to increase voltage (by connecting cells in and textile materials [10]. This design was later improved series) or to increase current (by connecting cells in paral- by replacing pure metal meshes with metal-coated textile lel). It is intended to use the battery in a dry state. The elec- materials [11], which ensured better flexibility and elimi- trolyte is added later and provokes activation of the system, nated problems with copper mesh oxidation. which performs an operation. Thus, the following special This paper focuses on electrical properties and multi-cell considerations should be taken during the design of such design of such batteries. a multi-cell battery: (1) cells must have an open design, so that the external electrolyte can reach all the cells; (2) at the same time, the cells must be sealed from one another, and (3) Batteries for smart textiles measures should be taken for directing electrolyte into indi- vidual cells and avoiding build-up of excessive electrolyte, Smart textile field has been booming during the last decades which can make detrimental electric connections between and one of the main challenges that have been acknowledged cells. was related to finding an energy source that is suitable for integration into wearables and particularly into smart tex- tiles. Lately, a number of important studies have been pub- Components of the original al‑air battery lished, which address just this problem. These studies focus on new materials and new approaches to powering smart The original battery [10] consists of a copper mesh cathode textile; however, they will not be discussed here, since an with carbon granules, and an aluminium mesh anode. The extensive overview can be found in other papers [2, 3, 5, single-cell battery has shown promising results (open-circuit 6, 11]. voltage V = 800 mV, short-circuit current I = 50 mA) OC  SC In this paper, we focus in particular on a new approach [10]. Although the choice of the materials made the battery to the development of energy source for smart textiles that less flexible, so further studies have been conducted, which is based on the idea of electrolyte and electrode separation resulted in replacing all the metal meshes with alternative [11]. This approach has a number of advantages, such as textile-based materials, without sacrificing the performance indefinite storage time and the possibility to use this bat- [11]. The improved design of single-cell flexible textile alu- tery as a self-energised wetness sensor [10]. This enables minium-air battery is shown and explicated in Fig. 1. to use the proposed design in medical applications, which For aluminium anode Mte x aluminium-textile composite often require a reaction to the appearance of bodily fluids. fabric is used, which has textile base and textile-like tactile Examples include enuresis alarm systems, disposable bed feel. Electric characteristics of this material are comparable mats, diapers for paediatric, elderly and stationary patients. to those of pure metal mesh. It is coated with aluminium, Other applications include use in cold storage facilities and using thermal, binder-free coating process [12]. Since the freezers, functioning as an electrochemical indicator, which outer layer is made of aluminium, it has all the necessary changes its state in case of temperature rise. These applica- electrochemical characteristics for use in the battery. tions are possible, because the batteries contain no toxic Cathode current collector is made using Shieldex® Buda- materials. Aqueous electrolyte is used for battery activation pest, which is 99% pure silver-plated polyamide fabric and (should electrolytic properties of the liquid not be enough for has surface resistivity < 1.0 Ohms/ [13]. Silver plating makes battery successful activation, NaCl can be included into the it particularly resistant to oxidation, which was an issue in inner layers of the dry battery (concentration 15%), which the original design [10]. dissolves and enhances the redox reaction). Electrolytic Outer shells are made of common cotton fabric, which properties usually are ensured by dissolved ions. ensures necessary tactile characteristics of the whole The battery described in [11] is completely made from package. textile-based materials. Silver-coated permeable fabric is Optional NaCl can be added to the air cathode. Its use and used as cathode current collector, which eliminates problems concentration should be evaluated based on the liquid, which with oxidation, that the original copper current collector was is expected to activate the battery. Should its ion concentra- prone to [10]. Besides that, its characteristics are comparable tion not be enough to act as an electrolyte, NaCl should be to that of the original battery, made using metal meshes. added accordingly. 1 3 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 Page 3 of 6 6 Fig. 1 Flexible textile Al-Air battery cell. 1—aluminium anode, Mtex aluminium-textile composite material; 2—cathode current collector, Shieldex Budapest conductive textile; 3—carbon granule and optional NaCl mixture to increase its concentration in electrolyte; 4— cotton enclosure of the cell; 5— cotton enclosure of the cathode; 6—sewn joints; 7—activating liquid from outer environment that is applied to the cell and that acts as an electrolyte It was demonstrated that the newly chosen materials show Multi‑cell battery design promising results and their performance is equivalent to that of pure metal elements, which were used in the original Previous studies [11] show that better results are obtained design of the flexible Al-air battery and had caused various when individual cells are arranged on a plane, rather than issues, mostly due to oxidation [11]. stacked on top of each other. This is because such an arrange- After suitable materials for flexible textile aluminium- ment ensures a better electrical insulation of the cells. Thus, air battery cells have been determined, it is now possible to the biggest challenges in combining flexible textile cells on a focus on the design of multi-cell battery and the arrangement textile substrate is to ensure their insulation by directing the of individual cells. flow of electrolyte and making connections in an appropriate The modular design of the battery enables one to choose way. This can be achieved by proper insulation of the indi- an arbitrary number of cells and their arrangement on the vidual cells with appropriate sealants. Cells are arranged on plane. Since one cell of the chosen type produces about a plane. Their stacking on top of each other does not allow to 0.7  V, it was decided to prepare a battery with 4 cells, ensure a proper insulation and flow of electrolyte at the same connected in series. This arrangement should quadruple time, which decreases performance of the battery. the potential and gives an output voltage of about 2.8  V, The designed battery prototype (see Fig. 2) presents four which is enough for most low-power semiconductor elec- cells connected in series. The cells are arranged on a plane tronics and sensors. In this case, maximum current remains and are adjacent to each other in a way that the cathode of unchanged—should the application require to increase the one cell overlays the anode of the next cell, etc. Since the current and not the voltage, the cells should be arranged materials are textile-based, the connection is made by sew- in parallel. In the described battery, the cells are arranged ing the electrodes together with conductive thread. The cells linearly, because it was intended for use in a wristband are incapsulated into two layers of non-permeable fabric, prototype. using commercially available seam sealer. The lower layer is made of solid rectangular piece of fabric and the upper layer is made of the same fabric with four openings that allow electrolyte to reach the cells. The sealant is applied on the cathode/anode connection area and around the cells, to insulate them. The fabric has hydrophobic coating, which Fig. 2 Multi-cell battery design, side view 1 3 6 Page 4 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 minimises electrolyte accumulation on the upper layer of 60  mA. Due to the intended application of the battery, the battery and detrimental connection bridges, as well as OCV change over time was not measured. However it was it enables the electrolyte to be distributed among the cells. observed that upon introduction of the electrolyte aluminium The only non-insulated electrodes are the anode of the first anode starts to deteriorate and should not be expected to last cell and the cathode of the last cell, which are the poles of for more than a few days, even without load. the multi-cell battery. To be consistent with our previous experiments [11], the To test the actual characteristics of the newly designed capacity of the battery was measured by putting it under a battery, a multi-cell (4 cells) flexible textile aluminium- constant 22Ω load. As was stated before, this particular bat- air battery prototype was developed (see Fig.  3), which tery design is not intended for long-time storage in the active consists of four sealed cells. The battery can produce 3 V state—it is used to perform a particular task upon activation upon activation, which enables it to power semiconductors and should be reset afterwards. Voltage/current change over without the need of additional voltage conversion or energy time under load can be seen in Figs. 5 and 6. accumulation. As can be seen from Fig.  5, voltage drops to around The basic characteristics of the battery are discussed in 50 mA 120 min after activation under a load of 22Ω. Current the next section. change over time is shown in Fig. 6, after 120 min it drops to around 2 mA. These figures show that it is practically possi - ble to use the battery for powering demanding semiconduc- Results and discussion tor electronics, such as wireless transmitters and sensors for a limited time of a few hours, depending on the actual load. The current–voltage curve of a 4-cell battery is presented Only one cycle was performed during the experiments in Fig. 4. As can be seen, it produces open-circuit voltage due to a number of factors: (1) this particular design of (OCV) of almost 3 V and has short-circuit current of almost the primary battery is not intended for repetitive use, but Fig. 3 Prototype of a multi-cell flexible textile Al-Air battery with cells arranged on a plane Fig. 4 Current–Voltage charac- 4-cell battery teristic of a 4-cell battery 00.5 11.5 22.5 33.5 Voltage, V 1 3 Current, mA Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 Page 5 of 6 6 Fig. 5 Voltage change over time Voltage over mewith 22Ωload of a 4-cell battery with 22Ω load applied 020406080 100 120 140 Time, min. Fig. 6 Current change over time Currentover me with 22 Ω load of a flexible textile battery with 22Ω load applied 020406080 100 120 140 Time, min. rather for one-time activation to change the state of the Conclusion system, (2) aluminium anode oxidises and deteriorates quickly in the presence of electrolyte, (3) thus, to re- This paper presents a further development of an alumin- activate the battery for next cycles, physical replacement ium-air battery that was proposed in [10] and improved in of the aluminium anode is necessary, which, after drying [11]. The paper shows how individual cells can be com- of the remaining components, should return its electrical bined to obtain higher electrical characteristics, which characteristics to the original level. are enough to power common semiconductor electronics. This completes an important step on the path to devel- Charts are presented, which show the operational charac- oping a functional multi-cell energy source that can be teristics of such batteries. used in wide variety of applications. Due to oxidation of aluminium anode, this kind of The focus of further studies will be on construction batteries are not intended for long-term storage in acti- improvements, practical usability and further study of cell vated state. However, they can be integrated into the final deterioration under various loads. 1 3 Voltage, mV Current, mA 6 Page 6 of 6 Materials for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2021) 10:6 5. Normann, M., Kyosev, Y., Ehrmann, A., Schwarz-Pfeiffer, A.: product and remain in inactive state without electrolyte Multilayer textile-based woven batteries. In: Kyosev, Y. (ed.) for virtually unlimited time, which expands their potential Recent developments in braiding and narrow weaving. Springer, use to storage solutions and various healthcare products. Cham (2016). https ://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29932 -7_13 6. Resuli, R., Turhan, I., Ehrmann, A., Blachowicz, T.: Textile-based Acknowledgements This work has been supported by the European batteries with nanofiber interlayer. AIMS. Energy. (2018). https:// Regional Development Fund within the project no. 1.1.1.1/16/A/020 doi.org/10.3934/energ y.2018.2.261 “Synthesis of textile surface coating modified in nano-level and ener - 7. Li, Q., Bjerrum, N.J.: Aluminum as anode for energy storage and getically independent measurement system integration in smart cloth- conversion: a review. J. Power. Sour. 110(2), 1–10 (2002). (ISSN: ing with functions of medical monitoring”. 03787753) 8. Yang, S., Knickle, H.: Design and analysis of aluminum/air bat- tery system for electric vehicles. J. Power. Sour. 112(1), 162–173 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri- (2002). (ISSN: 03787753) bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta- 9. Liu, Y., Sun, Q., Li, W., Adair, K.R., Li, J., Sun, X.: A comprehen- tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long sive review on recent progress in aluminum–air batteries. Green as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, Energy Env 2(3), 246–277 (2017). https ://doi.or g/10.1016/j. provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes gee.2017.06.006. (ISSN 2468-0257) were made. The images or other third party material in this article are 10. Briedis, U., Vališevskis, A., Zelča, Z.: Flexible aluminium-air bat- included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated tery for enuresis alarm system. In: 16th international scientific otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in conference "engineering for rural development": Proceedings. the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not Latvia, Jelgava, Jelgava (16) 619–624. ISSN 1691–3043. Avail- permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will able from: doi: https ://doi.or g/10.22616 /ERDev 2017.16.N123 need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a (2017) copy of this licence, visit http://creativ ecommons .or g/licenses/b y/4.0/. 11. Vališevskis, A., Briedis, U., Juchnevičiene, Ž, Juciene, M., Car- valho, M.: Design improvement of flexible textile aluminium-air battery. J Text Inst 12, 1–6 (2019). https: //doi.org/10.1080/00405 References 000.2019.16765 21. (ISSN 0040-5000. e-ISSN 1754-2340) 12. Frenzelit GmbH. Mtex Metal-textile compound materials, bro- chure. Frenzelit GmbH. BE1/03.03/02/BE (2017) 1. Briedis, U., Vališevskis, A., Grecka, M.: Development of a smart 13. 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Micromachines 8, 222 (2017) 1 3

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