Structural, electrochemical and catalytic activity of Prussian blue analogues embedded with functionalized carbon for solid state battery applications

Abstract The nanoparticles of Mn1.5[Cr(CN)6]∙mH2O@Ni1.5[Cr(CN)6]∙nH2O core-shell prussian blue analogues (PBA) embedded with carbon additives (PBA-C) were synthesized and characterized as electrode material for solid state battery application. The impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltametry were used to study the electrochemical properties by adding functionalized carbon in 1:1 proportion to improve the electrical performance. The value of room temperature electrical conductivity of core-shell PBA and core-shell nanoparticles mixed with vulcan carbon (PBA-C) are found to be 1.574 × 10−3 and 1.92 × 10−3 Scm−1, respectively. Using Li7La3Zr2O12 (LZZO) electrolyte, single cell was fabricated with PBA-C material, and studied its charging-discharging cycles, which exhibits higher current density with stable performance for 400 cycles for time slots of 400 min. The study reveals that the PBA core-shell nanoparticles mixed with carbon (PBA-C) may be a potential candidate as an electrode material in the form of a single cell using LZZO electrolyte.