Effects of Adding Sodium and Ethanol Inhibitor on Inhibiting H2 Evolution of Lithium Anode

The inhibition performance of alloy element Na and ethanol inhibitor on lithium anode in 4 mol/L LiOH alkaline aqueous electrolytes at 30 °C was investigated using hydrogen evolution rate measurement at OCP, polarization curve, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and voltage-time curve. The results show that alloy element Na and ethanol have inhibition effect both on anodic and cathodic reaction, but single alloy element Na or ethanol can not play an effective inhibition role on anode; only co-adding of alloy element Na and ethanol can greatly enhance the effect of inhibiting hydrogen evolution, the inhibition efficiency exceeds 80%. In addition, the property of discharge is very unstable with only adding of alloy element Na, but this problem can be resolved by adding ethanol. XRD shows that Li and Na forms perfect solid solution.