Spent Coffee Grounds as Eco-Friendly Additives for Aluminum–Air Batteries

[Image: see text] A new approach to the recycling of spent coffee grounds is described in which lignin, a chemical component of spent coffee, is used as an electrolyte additive in aluminum–air batteries. The effect of lignin on the performance of aluminum–air batteries has been investigated by weight loss measurement, galvanostatic discharge test, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The corrosion inhibition efficiency is improved up to 37.3% and fuel efficiency up to 21.7% at 500 ppm of lignin molecules. The chemisorption of lignin molecules on the aluminum surface improves battery performance. Adsorption of lignin molecules onto the aluminum surface is driven by the electrostatic interaction between the lignin’s hydroxyl group and the aluminum surface. The mechanism for the performance improvement is explained by the chemisorption behavior of lignin molecules. The adsorption behavior has been investigated by scanning electronic microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), laser scanning microscopy (LSM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Freundlich adsorption isotherm, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and the computational calculation of adsorption energies based on the density functional theory (DFT).