Femtosecond Laser Processing Structural Surfaces of Zinc anodes for rechargeable zinc-air battery

¹ Institute of Laser Engineering, Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124 China
² Key Laboratory of Trans-scale Laser Manufacturing Technology (Beijing University of Technology), Ministry of Education, Beijing 100124 China
³ Beijing Engineering Research Center of Laser Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing 100124 China
⁴ Beijing Colleges and Universities Engineering Research Center of Advanced Laser Manufacturing, Beijing 100124 China
⁵ Beijing Spacecrafts, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China

^* Corresponding author: ypyuan@bjut.edu.cn

Abstract

Researches about renewable rechargeable battery have attracted the attention of many scholars, due to increasing demands of energy and global energy crisis. Zinc-air batteries are one of most promising energy sources, but the morphological changes and forming dendritic of zinc anodes greatly limit their cycle life during the charging-discharging process. In order to improve zinc-air batteries electrochemical performance and control dendritic growth, surface of zinc anodes is irradiated by femtosecond laser with different power. The electrochemical results indicate that zinc anodes of zinc-air batteries with different surface structures show different electrochemical properties. Due to the removing oxide layer on the surface of zinc anode, adding contact areas of zinc anodes and electrolytes, and restraining dendritic growth by femtosecond laser processing, first discharge time of zinc anodes with surface structures of zinc-air batteries is about 10 times than that of without processing. It is also found that more intense chemical reactions occur in the area treated by femtosecond laser.