PERFORMANCE CHARACTERIZATION OF SINTERED IRON ELECTRODES IN NICKEL IRON ALKALINE BATTERIES/

A nickel/iron storage battery with a porous, sintered, iron negative e lectrode and a nickel positive electrode is a high power system by vir tue of its low internal resistance. A dry-powder sintering procedure i s used to fabricate negative and positive electrodes. Negative iron el ectrodes are activated with various salt solutions such as CdSO4, BaCl 2, HgCl2 and sulfur. Positive electrodes are impregnated with nickel h ydroxide by a chemical method. Tests are performed in 10 Ah capacity n ickel/iron cells and two types of activated iron electrodes are used. The present work deals with electrode fabrication, charge/discharge st udies, self-discharge, temperature performance and cycle life. Finally , the best iron electrodes are coupled with nickel electrodes to obtai n a 1.37 V, 75 Ah nickel/iron cell. The performance of this cell is di scussed.