Firman Ridwan, Dean Bilalwa Agusto, Muhammad Farid Abdullah, Muhammad Ilhamdi Rusydi, Darwison, Hamdi Rifai
Aluminium-air batteries offer high theoretical energy density but are hindered by limited ionic conductivity and unstable ion transport in conventional electrolyte membranes. This study presents a synergistic material strategy integrating polyaniline (PANI)-modified polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/HCl/tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) electrolyte membranes with carbon quantum dot (CQD)-embedded polylactic acid (PLA) nanofiber separators. PANI loadings were systematically varied from 0 to 0.10 g, while CQDs synthesised from citric acid and urea were uniformly dispersed into PLA nanofibers via electrospinning. The incorporation of PANI and CQDs facilitated the formation of microporous structures and conductive pathways, as confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy revealed that the ionic conductivity increased from 0.453 mS·cm-1 (0 g PANI) to 1.365 mS·cm-1 (0.10 g PANI), corresponding to a 201% enhancement. The ion mobility reached 2.72 × 10-6 cm2·V-1·s-1 with a transference number of 0.82. Galvanostatic discharge tests showed that an intermediate PANI loading of 0.04 g delivered the highest discharge capacity (0.5000 mAh) and energy density (0.3750 mWh), indicating an optimal trade-off between ion transport and electrochemical utilisation. These findings demonstrate that the rational combination of PANI and CQDs provides a scalable, environmentally benign route to improve both the stability and efficiency of aluminium-air battery systems. © 2026 The authors. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Andalas University, Padang, 25163, Indonesia; Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Andalas University, Padang, 25163, Indonesia; Department of Physics, Universitas Negeri Padang, Padang, 25163, Indonesia
