Polypropylene as an innovative substitute for jar material of horizontal axis, multi-jar ball milling machine to grind electrode materials for energy storage devices

¹ Dept. of Mechanical Engg., College of Engineering, Pune, India
² Dept. of Mechanical Engg., College of Engineering, Pune, India
³ Dept. of Mechanical Engg., Northwestern University, IL, USA
⁴ Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunication Engg. Army Institute of Technology, Pune, India

^* Corresponding author: shindesr19.mech@coep.ac.in

Abstract

It is approximated that there will be a considerable amount of increase in worlds energy needs. So, there is a need of high energy storing devices when the load is low or moderate. Supercapacitors (SC) can be the competent options to serve this purpose. The paper recounts the performance of supercapacitors (SC) churned out from a horizontal axis multi-jar ball milling machine based on variations in material properties of ball milling jars. To store ample amount of energy, it is very essential to develop energy storing devices with large capacities and large ratings. The performance of energy storage devices is investigated using Manganese dioxide and Activated carbon as electrode materials. Majority of the times the granular size of raw-electrode materials is not enough fine to use them as electrodes directly. As a result of this, it is essential to crush the raw-electrode materials of the SC into fine powder. The energy storing capacity of SCs depends on size of particle, specific area, the of material and quantity to weight ratio of electrode material. In this paper an alternative material ‘Polypropylene’ is used as a substitute for Aluminum jars in horizontal axis multi-jar ball milling machine to crush the electrode materials. The effectiveness of both the jars is compared by evaluating the performance parameters of the SCs manufactured from electrode materials crushed in each of these jars. It is observed that the performance of SCs depends on type of ball milling machine, number of ball milling balls used, ball milling time, diameter of ball milling jars, speed of ball milling and material of ball mill jars properties. So, all other parameters are kept the same except the material of ball mill jars to scrutinize the effect of ball milling jars on performance of SCs.