While the dye-sensitized solar cell workshops are off to a great start in Uganda, SciBridge volunteers at UT Austin have been working on developing a new experiment kit. This time, our goal is to demonstrate energy conversion with aluminum-air (Al-air) batteries. Metal-air batteries have received a lot of attention over the past few years due to their tremendously high theoretical energy densities. Researchers are hard at work trying to make metal-air batteries rechargeable and more efficient. Our goals for the Al-air battery kits are (1) to let the students make working batteries that can light up a LED and (2) ask critical questions about what makes metal-air batteries so hard to re-charge. This discussion naturally leads to electrocatalysis, another highly active research area.
Today, UT Austin grad students Benjamin and Siyang and our 1st undergraduate student, Kevin, joined me for a fun morning of playing around with the experiment. Check out the photos below!
-Veronica
Today, UT Austin grad students Benjamin and Siyang and our 1st undergraduate student, Kevin, joined me for a fun morning of playing around with the experiment. Check out the photos below!
-Veronica
Siyang carefully applying carbon ink onto nickel mesh to make the air cathode.
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Siyang and Benjamin holding the electrical contacts to the battery. After several configurations, we get the LED brightly lit!
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