Considering the literature for aqueous rechargeable Zn//MnO₂ batteries with acidic electrolytes using the doctor blade coating of the active material (AM), carbon black (CB), and binder polymer (BP) for the positive electrode fabrication, different binder types with (non-)aqueous solvents were introduced so far. Furthermore, in most of the cases, relatively high passive material (CB+BP) shares ~30 wt% were applied. The first part of this work focuses on different selected BPs: polyacrylonitrile (PAN), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), cellulose acetate (CA), and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR). They were used together with (non-)aqueous solvents: DI-water, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). By performing mechanical, electrochemical and optical characterizations, a better overall performance of the BPs using aqueous solvents was found in aqueous 2 M ZnSO₄ + 0.1 M MnSO₄ electrolyte (i.e., BP LA133: 150 mAh·g⁻¹ and 189 mWh·g⁻¹ @ 160 mA·g⁻¹). The second part focuses on the mixing ratio of the electrode components, aiming at the decrease of the commonly used passive material share of ~30 wt% for an industrial-oriented electrode fabrication, while still maintaining the electrochemical performance. Here, the absolute CB share and the CB/BP ratio are found to be important parameters for an application-oriented electrode fabrication (i.e., high energy/power applications).

Aqueous zinc ion batteries are considered to be one of the most promising battery types for stationary energy storage applications. Due to their aqueous electrolyte, they are inherently safe concerning flammability and environmentally friendly. In this work, the strong influence of the particle size of manganese sesquioxide on the performance of the battery is investigated. Ball milling was used to decrease the particle diameter. The resulting powders were used as active material for the cathodes, which were assembled in coin cells as full cells together with zinc foil anodes and aqueous electrolyte. It was shown that about one third of the original particle size can nearly triple the initial capacity when charged with constant current and constant end-of-charge voltage. Additionally, smaller particles were found to be responsible for the collapse of capacity at high current densities. By means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, it was shown that particle size also has a large impact on the internal resistance. Initially, the internal resistance of the cells with small particles was about half that of those with big particles, but became larger during cycling. This reveals accelerated aging processes when the reactive surface of the active material is increased by smaller particles.