DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGH RATE METAL-AIR DEPOLARIZED BATTERIES.

Abstract

A study was conducted to determine the performance characteristics and operational parameters for various metal-air couples. The anode materials being examined are Al, Ba, Ca, Mg, and Zn. They must discharge efficiently from -25F to 125F at rates from the 30 minute to 50 hour. Bootstrap heating for a 5 cell zinc-air battery was investigated at -25F. Useful capacity at the C/4 rate was about one half that obtained at room temperature and about double what would be obtained at -25F without bootstrap heating. Full sized 16 ampere-hour cells were designed, fabricated and tested. The watt-hour per pound performance of the finished prototype was in excess of 100 watt-hrs/lb. at the 1C discharge rate. A magnesium-air system of high efficiency was developed. The improvementx was obtained by using sodium and lithium perchlorate instead of magnesium perchlorate electrolyte. Also, a eutectic solution of these two perchlorate salts gave acceptable performance down to -15F. Aluminum-air cells were studied in a free rather than an immobilized electrolyte system. The best performance was obtained in an electrlyte consisting of 20% KOH and 10% NaCl saturated with ZnO. Calcium anode behavior was studied in the polarization cell and in working calcium-air cells. The work quarter consisted of finding an electrolyte which was compatible with both the anode and cathode. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0635773

Entities

People

  • Allen Charkey

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aluminum
  • Chemical Compounds
  • Efficiency
  • Electrolytes
  • Magnesium
  • Materials
  • Metal Air Batteries
  • Metals
  • Perchlorates
  • Polarization
  • Prototypes

Readers

  • Battery Technology and Engineering
  • Electrochemical Engineering/ Fuel Cell Technologies