Influence of Sodium Silicate/Sodium Alginate Additives on Discharge Performance of Mg–Air Battery Based on AZ61 Alloy

The application of Mg–air batteries is limited due to passivation and self-corrosion of anode alloys in electrolyte. In effort of solving this problem, the present work studied the influence of sodium silicate (SS)/sodium alginate (SA) on electrochemical behaviors of AZ61 alloy in NaCl solution by circle potentiodynamic polarization and galvanostatic discharge. The corrosion morphology and discharge product were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Results have shown that sodium silicate/sodium alginate inhibitors have an apparent effect on the self-corrosion of AZ61 alloy without affecting its discharge performance. The discharge capacity and the anodic utilization for Mg–air battery in a 0.6 M NaCl + 0.01 M SS +0.04 M SA solution are measured to be 1397 mAhg−1 and 48.2%, respectively. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and SEM investigation have confirmed that the sodium silicate/sodium alginate inhibitor can obviously decrease the self-corrosion of AZ61 alloy. SEM and XRD diffraction examinations suggest that the inhibiting mechanism is due to the formation of a compact and “cracked mud” layer. AZ61 alloy can be used as the anode for Mg–air battery in a solution of 0.6 M NaCl + 0.01 M SS +0.04 M SA.