Novel Metal Hydride Electrodes for High-Energy-Density, Nickel-Metal-Hydride Batteries

Nickel/metal hydride (Ni/MH) batteries have received great attention recently in both government and private industry sectors. The most attractive characteristics of Ni/MH batteries are their much higher energy density over other types of batteries, such as lead-acid and nickel/cadmium, and the fact that they pose no hazardous waste disposal problem, as they do not contain toxic materials. However, this type of battery still remains in the R&D and small production stages. The major drawback to this battery type is that metal hydride electrodes suffer a cyclic volume change due to the absorption/desorption of hydrogen and the oxidation of hydrogen storage compounds exposed to electrolyte, which lead to the degradation of the electrodes. In this Phase I program, Ultramet proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating a novel metal hydride which will provide significant improvements over those currently used in Ni/MH batteries. This novel metal hydride has a greater hydrogen storage capacity, offering higher energy density; an extremely low volume change, some 30- 5096 less than current MH electrodes ; and excellent oxidation resistance, greatly minimizing the possibility of degradation. Ultramet will work closely with a leading expert in the field of metal hydrides to fabricate and characterize this novel metal hydride electrode for use in Ni/MH batteries.