An Analysis of Copper Prussian Blue as a Viable Active Material in a Washable Battery Dip-Coater System

Abstract

Flexible, high potential, high rate and long lifetime thread batteries prepared with a Prussian Blue analogue (PBA) active material as the cathode, and agarose infused Na+ electrolyte, and zinc anode are demonstrated along with an analysis of their washable characteristics, other mechanical and electrochemical characteristics, and fabrication using a newly designed dip-coater system. Thread batteries are interesting as they can potentially be woven into wearable real estate, thereby making an active part of wearable electronics. Cells formed with a copper hexacyanoferrate (CuHcf) PBA working electrode and a hyper-dendritic zinc counter electrode exhibited an open voltage potential up to 1.97V. Batteries prepared with agarose could reach an average specific capacity of about 50 mAhrg-1, and some cells operated beyond 1000 cycles. Results from the dip-coater prepared thread batteries appear to show equivalent performance metrics to manually assembled batteries, with specific capacities starting in the range of 25-50 mAhrg-1. Cells utilizing CMC, washable glue, and flex resin (as the binder) all successfully cycled in detergent solution, showing the potential to serve as a washable battery material.