Inhibitive Action of Sulfide Ions on Corrosion and Enhancing Charge-Discharge Efficiency of Zinc and Zinc-Indium Alloy as Anode for Alkaline Batteries

The obtained data reveal that the coverage of surface (θ) and protection efficiency (η%) for the studied electrodes increases gradually as the inhibitor concentration increases. Tafel plot is carried out at variant temperatures in the investigated basic electrolyte containing 1×10−1 M of S ions. This study reveals that the activation energy barrier of the studied alloy is higher than that of pristine zinc anode at a fixed inhibitor concentration. It is observed that ▵Goads. and η% values rise with rising solution temperature, indicating that S ions adsorption on the studied electrode surfaces occurs by a chemisorption mechanism. Other calculations are made for the additional thermodynamic parameters such as ▵Hoadsand ▵Soads. The zinc anodes get more efficient when S ions are added to the solution, considerably decreasing electrochemical polarization. In addition, the presence of indium sulfide improves the exposed surface area of the alloy, supplying additional improvement in charge-discharge efficiency. Density functional theory (DFT) is utilized to extract the quantum data to acquire a deeper understanding of the chemical processes between sulfide ions at the interface.