Alkali storage cell employing a spongelike metal substrate

Metal working – Bias cutting of tubular stock

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

429237, 429235, 429245, H01M 480

Patent

active

059409460

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a spongelike metal substrate used as an electrode substrate of an alkali storage cell and a producing method of the substrate, and further relates to an alkali storage cell employing such a substrate and a manufacturing method of the cell.


BACKGROUND ART

Electrodes for use in alkali storage cells are classified into a sintered type and a paste type. The sintered-type electrodes have excellent current collecting performance, but they require a complicated operation for being filled with active material and cannot easily achieve high energy density. In contrast, the paste-type electrodes have good workability, allowing the substrates to be directly filled with active material and achieve dense filling of active material.
As substrates for use in the paste-type electrodes, porous metal plates and spongelike metal substrates have been used. The term "spongelike" refers to a state where a great number of small cells are contiguous to each other and fluid such as air or paste inside these cells can travel from one cell to another. Since the term "cell" is used to mean "battery" in this specification, "three-dimensional space" or other terms are used instead. Spongelike metal substrates made of nickel or the like (foamed nickel substrates or the like) have become the mainstream, with the growing demands for cells which have higher energy density and can be manufactured at a lower cost. The reason for the popularity of the spongelike metal substrates is due to their favorable features as follows. The spongelike metal substrates contain numerous three-dimensional spaces each of which is surrounded by metallic lattices and can be filled with solid active material in paste form directly and at high density. Furthermore, contiguous numerous metallic lattices serve as a current collector, making it unnecessary to use a conductive supporter.
Generally, a spongelike nickel substrate is prepared as follows: A spongelike organic high polymer (organic polymer, organic macromolecular substance) such as foamed urethane is plated with nickel by either electroplating, electrolessplating, or vapor deposition, then the nickel-plated high polymer is baked at a high temperature. The electrode substrate thus produced is highly porous and contains numerous metallic lattices which are composed of thin metal wires.
This electrode substrate can be filled with active material at high density; however, its stretching force is weak because the lattices are composed of extremely thin metal wires. As a result, the lattices are susceptible to fracture in parts during electrode pressing process or electrode coiling process after the electrode substrate has been filled with active material. The fracture of the metallic lattices leads to the deterioration of the current collecting efficiency, and as a result, there is a problem that the electrode performance cannot improve sufficiently even if the electrode substrate is filled with active material at high density.
There is another problem that cells which employ such a spongelike nickel substrate do not necessarily achieve an expected high-temperature consecutive charge characteristic, whose cause has been unknown.


DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been achieved to solve the above-described problems. The invention has the following construction.
(1) The first invention relates to a spongelike porous metal substrate having a multiplicity of cells connected with each other three-dimensionally for use in an alkali storage cell, which is produced by making an organic high polymer with a porous sponge structure retain a metal and baking the metal-retained organic polymer, and which contains 0.5% by weight or low of carbon.
In this construction, there is no fear that remaining carbon has a harmful influence on the electrochemical characteristic of a cell which employs the spongelike porous metal substrate. Consequently, a paste-type alkali storage cell employing this spongelike porous metal substrate can have excellent high-te

REFERENCES:
patent: 4251603 (1981-02-01), Matsumoto et al.
patent: 4957543 (1990-09-01), Babjak et al.
patent: 5312580 (1994-05-01), Erickson et al.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Alkali storage cell employing a spongelike metal substrate does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Alkali storage cell employing a spongelike metal substrate, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Alkali storage cell employing a spongelike metal substrate will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-455888

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.