Serious efforts were first made on utilization of aluminum
anodes in Leclanche-type dry cells after the 1950s, when analuminum/aqueous NaOH þ ZnO/porous membrane/
MnO2(C) system was disclosed [5]. Further development
was made on an Al/MnO2 cell with manganese chloride
tetrahydrate as electrolyte [6].
The aluminum/oxygen system was first demonstrated in
the early 1960s by Zaromb [7] and Trevethan et al. [8], who
found that the addition of zinc oxide or certain organic
inhibitors, e.g. alkyldimethylbenzyl-ammonium salts, to the
electrolyte significantly decreased the corrosion of amalgamated
aluminum anodes in 10 M sodium or potassium
hydroxide solutions.