Improvement of High−Temperature Characteristics of the Sintered
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686 EJ60ケooho勿zゑsψりノ 一Article一 Improvement of High-Temperature Characteristics of the Sintered Nickel Positive Electrode for an Alkaline Storage Battery Katsuhiko SHINYAMA,*Yoshifumi MAGARI,Atsuhiro FUNAHASHI, Toshiyuki NOHMA,and Ikuo YONEZU R&D Business Unit,Mobile Energy Company,Sanyo Electric Co.,Ltd.(7-3-21bukidai-higashimachi,Nishi-ku,Kobe City,Hyogo651-2242,Japan) Received August9,2002;Accepted May20,2003 The high-temperature characteristics of sintered nickel positive electrodes for alkaline storage batteries such as nickel・metal hydride batteries and nicke1-cadmium batteries were investigated.Generally,the discharge capacity of an alkaline storage battery charged at high temperature is smaller than that charged at room temperature due to the oxygen evolution reaction.In order to enhance high-temperature characteristics,we coated sintered n量ckel positive electrodes with yttrium hydroxide,calcium hydroxide or cobalt hydroxide.Th6high-temperature characteristics of the sintered nickel positive electrodes coated with y血ium hydroxide and calcium hydroxide by immersing them in sodium hydroxide solution after immersing in nitrate solution were greatly enhanced because of the increased oxy. gen OVerVOltage. κ¢y防鳩:Sintered Nickel Positive Electrode,High-temperature Characteristics,Alkaline Storage Battery,Oxygen Overvoltage l lntroduction In the past,the electrolyte composition3)and dissolv- Cun℃ntly,alkaline storage batteries such as nicke1- ing such elements as cobalt and calcium into nickel hy- cadmium batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries1) dro》dde4-8)were investigated in order to improve the are used for a variety of applications from portable equip- high-temperature charge ef匠ciency.In recent years,how- ment to power tools.Nickel hydroxide is used as the ac- ever,further improvement of the high-temperature tive material for a positive electrode in the alkaline stor- charge ef且ciency has been required.Powder additives age baUleries.The nickel positive electrode is either a such as calcium compounds,barium compounds and sintered nickel posi丘ve electrode or a non-sintered nickel rare-earth compounds are used for this purpose for a posidve electrode.The advant丑ge of the sintered nickel non-sintered nickel electrode,9}13)while it is d面cult to positive electrode is its high power characteristics and apply such powder additives to a sintered nickel elec- that of廿1e non-sintered nickel posidve elec仕ode is its trode丘om the manufacturing Point ofview。 high capacity.Thus,the sintered nickel positive elec- The purpose of this sUldy is to hnprove the high- trode is often used in alkaline storage battehes when temperature charge e伍ciency of a nickel-metal hydride high power is required.In recent years,the sintered baUlery with a sintered nickel posi行ve electrode for h三gh nickel posidve elect■ode is considered to be aUrac丘ve for power applications.In our approach,we coat the nickel HEV(Hybrid Electric Vehicle)from this reason.For hydroxide parUcles of the sintered nickel positive elec- such high power applications the high-temperature char- trode with hydroxide species in order to elevate the oxy- acteristics are s廿ongly required because the apPlications 9en evolution potential. are often used in a hot place and in addidon the baUlery temperature tends to rise due to high current. 2 Experimental The discharge capacity of an alkaline storage battery 2.1 P1・eparation of a.coa.ted nickel positive elec- charged at high temperature,either using a sintered trode nickel electrode or using a non-sintered nickel elec廿’ode, First,we selected calcium from the alkaline earth met- is usually lower than that charged at room tempera一 als and yttrium from the rare earth elements as a coating 加re.2)The cause of this is consi(1ere(1to be due to the materia1。We also selected cobalt which is commonly oxygen evoludon reaction or a side reaction (Eq.2)of used as an element to be co-precipitated in nickel hy- the charging reaction(Eq.1)of the positive electrode at dro》dde.The coating method was as follows.After filling high temperature. nickel hydroxide into a porous sintering body by using a chemical impregnation method,we carried out immer- Charge reaction sion in a cobalt nitrate solution,yttrium nitrate solution Ni(OH)2+OH一一→・NiOOH+H20+e- (1) or calcium nitrate solution of a specific gravity of1.2.By Side reacdon of oxygen evoludon immersion in a sodium hydroxide solution,we obtained 40H}一→02+2H20+4e一 (2) the sintered nickel positive electrodes surface-coated 71,No.8(2003) 687 temperature charge characteristics were measured again. E蓋ectrolyte 3 Results and Discussion 3.l Preparation of a coated nickel positive elec- trode Our concept for improving high-temperature charge ef ficiency is illustrated in Fig.2.The sintered nickel elec- trode has a three-dimensional porous structure consist- ing of a sintered nickel body fille(1with nickel hydroxkie as the active material.When the cell temperature is high, the side reacdon in Eq.20ccurs,generating oxygen and water.Cobalt co-precipitation in nickel hydroxide is often used in order to improve the charge acceptImce charac- teristics.Instead,we focused on the modhication of the active material surface by coating the nickel positive elec- Sepaダa症or trode with hydro】ddes of other elements as this side re- Fig.l Test cell configuration using a coated nickel positive action is considered to occur on the active material sur- electrode and a sintered cadmium electrode. face. The amount ofthe coating materials is appro}dmately2 with cobalt hydro⊃dde,yttrium hydroxide and calcium hy- wt%as shown in Table1. droxide,respectively. SEMξmd EPMA images of the surface of the nickel The amount of coated hydroxide was calculated from positive electrode coated with y血ium hydroxide are the weight d逝erence of the electrode before and a[fter shown in Fig.3.The white dots in the EPMA image indi- coating.The nickel positive electrode coated with yttrium cate the presence ofyttrium。We con丘rmed that the sur- hydro⊃dde was characterized with scanning electron mi- face of the nickel hydroxide,which is thought to be the croscopy (SEM)and electron probe micro analysis active oxygen evolution site,was coated with y血ium hy- (EPMA). dro)dde. 2.2 Characteristics of a test cell using a co&ted Figure4shows cross-sectional SEM and EPMA im- nickel positive electrode ages of the nickel positive electrode coated with yttrium We assembIed test cells with the coated positive elec- hydrqxide,also indicating that the surface of the nickel trode as the worldng electrode and a sintered cadmium hydro》dde inside the electrode is coated with yttrium hy- electrode as the counter electrode.We used a three- droxide. ingredient solution of potassium hydro)dde,sodium hy- 3.3 Characteristics of test cells droxide an(l lithium hydro】dde as the electrolyte.Figure The effect of the hydroxide coadng on the high- l shows the test cell configuration.The condition testing temperature charge ef丘ciency of the test cells is shown their high-temperature charge characteristics was as foト in terms of the discharge capacity ratio versus the charg- lows:(1)Charge the positive electrode up to160%of ing temperature in Fig.5.The charging ef丘ciency is im- the theoretical capacity for a one-electron reaction at1/5 proved at high temperature for all the three hydroxides. C within an environmental temperature range from25℃ to60℃.(2)Set the environmental temperature at25℃. (3)Discharge the positive electrode up to a cell voltage ofO.8Vat1/3C. 2.3 Characteristics of a cylindrical se&led-type cell using a hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode as the negatiVe eleCtrOde We prepared cylindhcal sealed-type cells using the coated nickel positive electrode,a hydrogen-absorbing al- loy negative electrode and a three-ingre(lient electrolyte consisting of potassium hydroxide,sodium hydroxide ξmd lithium hydro》dd.The composition of the hydrogen- Fig.2 0xygen evolution reaction at the surface of the sin- absorbing alloy was MmNi3.6Coo.謝o.3Mno.5.The condi- tered positive nickel electrode. tions testing their high-temperature charge characteris- tics was as follows:(1)Charge the cell up to120%of the cell capacity at1/2C at an environmental tempera- T&ble l Amount of coating hydroxides on the nickel posi- ture range from25℃to60℃.(2)Set the environmental tiVe eleCtrOde material. temperature was at25℃.(3)Discharge the cell up to a Coating Amount of coa廿ng hydroxides(wt%〉 cellvoltageof1.OVat1/2C. Cobalthydroxide 1.8 In the cycle tests,the cylindrical sealed-type cells were Yttrium hydroxide 2.4 charged at3C for l6min.and discharged at3C to a Calcium hydro》dde 2.1 cell voltage of 1.O V.After 200 cycles,the high一 688 EJ66ケoohε”露ε」りノ Actlve mate『lal S嚢鰍重er義顯9 わody 20μm Fig.3Su㎡ace SEM and EPMA images ofa nickel positive electrode coated with yttrium hydroxide. Externa裂 Active m樋eria匿 Sinteri陥9 body 耳臓tema墾魎 60μm Fig.4Cross sectional SEM and EPMA images ofa nickel positive electrode coated with yttrium hydroxide. 105 1.55 Ca 斜oo へ ヘ (1.50 ヤ ヘ > ,’一一一曙一一胴一” ≧く95 8ミ、.r臥、 Y/‘一 お ) n。n⑳ated脅、,、、ざス bO1.45o !ノ 890 ε 1!ダCOnon.coated 忌 ㌦ 2h. ¥ 宕 Q85 、 、へ 、 > 1.40 ノ ひ 1 α1arge:1/5C×8h へ.\■ 冒 ∠ 1 響80 噺 、Ca ひ Q 1.35 7 鋸75 Discharge:・/3C・ \、C♂ 窃 グ ひ Charge彫1/5C×8h,25。C 070 E.V.=0。8V,250C \ ←41.30 65 ! 1.25 30 40 50 60 20 100 200 300 400 500 Charge Temperature(?C) 0 Capacity of Charging(mAh) Fig.5 Effect of hydroxide coating on high-temperature Fig.6 Charge characteristics of test cells at25℃. charge efficiency of test cells. In particular,the electrodes using yttrium hydroxide an(i ξmd calcium hydroxi(ie compared