A Study on the Self-Discharge Behavior of Zinc-Air Batteries with CuO Additives

Zn-air batteries have promise as the next generation of batteries. However, their self-discharge behavior due to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and corrosion of the Zn anode reduce their electrochemical performance. Copper (II) oxide (CuO) effectively suppresses the corrosion and HER. In addition, different electrochemical behavior can be obtained with different shape of nano CuO. To improve the performance of Zn-air batteries, in this study we synthesized nano CuO by the hydrothermal synthesis method with different volumes of NaOH solutions. Materials were characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, and EDX analysis. The sphere-like nano CuO (S-CuO) showed a specific discharge capacity of 428.8 mAh/g and 359.42 mAh/g after 1 h and 12 h storage, respectively. It also showed a capacity retention rate of 83.8%. In contrast, the other nano CuO additives showed a lower performance than pure Zn. The corrosion behavior of nano CuO additives was analyzed through Tafel extrapolation. S-CuO showed an Icorr of 0.053 A/cm2, the lowest value among the compared nano CuO materials. The results of our comparative study suggest that the sphere-like nano CuO additive is the most effective for suppressing the self-discharge of Zn-air batteries.

Optical diagnostics of a dielectric surface discharge in the triggered vacuum gap using various dielectric materials

High-speed imaging and visible light stereomicroscopy were applied to do researches, which allowed us to find out differences in a dielectric surface discharge behavior in the triggered vacuum gap, when various dielectric materials (mica, muscovite and corundum-type ceramics) were used. Images of the discharge and the erosion in the electrode systems were analized to reveal that at the discharge on the ceramics surface a material of electrodes was mostly involved as a plasma-forming matter and on the mica it is the dielectric material.

Neuron dynamics and synchronous transition of symmetrical electrically coupled Sherman

Based on the study of the synchronization of two electric synapse-coupled Sherman neuron systems, this paper analyzes the rich discharge behavior of Sherman neurons through the peak-to-peak interval bifurcation diagram, which determines the parameter values for the study of the electrical synapse coupling Sherman neuron system synchronization. By using the synchronization difference and the correlation coefficient value, this paper analyzes the synchronous transition process of the two electrical synapse-coupled Sherman neuron systems with the change of coupling intensity and studies the bifurcation behavior of neurons in the two electrical synapse-coupled Sherman neuron systems. The experimental results show the transition process of two electrical synapse-coupled Sherman neurons from nonsynchronized, peak-independent cluster synchronization to fully synchronized. In addition, we study the synchronization process of the ring-connected electrical synapse-coupled Sherman neuron system. The experimental results show that the two electrical synapse-coupled Sherman neuron systems show a similar synchronous transition process.