Primary batteries applications

Zinc-silver oxide batteries as primary cells are known both as button cells, e.g., for hearing aids, watches, or cameras, and for military applications, usually as reserve batteries. Since the latter after activation have only a very short life (a few seconds to some minutes), a separation by cellulo-sic paper is generally sufficient. 

The electrochemical behavior of thin-film oxide-hydroxide electrodes containing chromium, nickel and cobalt compounds was investigated. Experimental results have shown that such compounds can be successfully used as active cathodic materials in a number of emerging primary and secondary battery applications. 

To the contrary, however, many of the nonaqueous solvents possess lower polarity and thus form electrolyte solutions with a lower conductivity, but have a wider electrochemical window than that of water. - nonaqueous solvents have a wide application in - lithium batteries (both primary and secondary). 

A revolutionary event in the primary battery market was the development of primary lithium batteries in 1973. Lithium is a very attractive metal for battery applications due to its low atomic mass (6.94), its high specific capacity (3.86 Ah g 1), and its high electrochemical reduction potential (—3.035 V) [10]. Research in lithium batteries started in the late 1950s. It was then... 

P. Bro and S.C. Levy. Quality and Reliability Methods of Primary Batteries. New York WUey, 1990. Rechargable Batteries Application Handbook. London Butterworth-Heinemann, 1992. 

Lithium batteries have developed over the past 30 years to become one of the most promising new battery systems. Primary and secondary lithium batteries have gained widespread use in communications, portable tools, military devices, and industry. The next five to ten years will continue to show heavy lithium battery growth in standard uses as well as development into new applications such as electric and hybrid electric vehicles. 

The typical life cycles of consumer batteries depend to some extent on their applications. Primary batteries employed in portable devices are most often discarded casually with domestic trash and end up in landfills. Exceptions exist in communities where deliberate efforts are made to collect spent batteries for recycling or proper disposal and in communities where battery vendors participate in incentive programs to return spent batteries to the manufacturers or collect them for recycling or proper disposal. The magnitude of such programs is still... 

In the last few decades, conductive polymers have found exciting new relevance in the non-rechargeable (primary) and rechargeable (secondary) batteries for electrical storage. The durability studies of polymeric electrodes may be made galvanostatically or potentios-tatically to evaluate their life in battery applications [49-51]. 

Especially important for proper operation of the battery are the impurities contained in the metal used for leady oxide manufacture. Lead for the battery industry is derived from ores mined in different parts of the world (primary lead) or is obtained by recycling of used up batteries that have reached their end of fife (secondary lead). The recycling process is very often performed at the battery manufacturers facilities. Purity standards have been adopted for the lead to be used for leady oxide production. These standards specify different maximum allowable amounts of impurities for flooded and valve-regulated lead-acid battery applications. Table 5.2 presents typical purity specifications for lead for making leady oxide for flooded batteries. 

The use of LMO in batteries was first reported by Hunter in 1982, who prepared X-MnO by extracting lithium from LMO and applied it as a cathode-active material for lithium primary batteries. Application of LMO to a lithium secondary battery was first reported by Thackeray et al. in 1984. ... 

Different applications require batteries with different properties. The battery required to start a car, for example, must be capable of delivering a large electrical current for a short time period. The battery that powers a heart pacemaker, on the other hand, must be very small and capable of delivering a small but steady current over an extended time period. Some batteries are primary cells, meaning fiiat they can t be recharged. A primary cell must be discarded or recycled after its emf drops to zero. A secondary cell can be recharged from an external power source after its emf has dropped. 

Currently, Yardney is in continuous production of secondary lithium-ion batteries, primary and secondary silver-zinc batteries and primary reserve silver-zinc batteries used on various Department of Defense applications. The primary battery applications include the Navy s Trident IID5 Fleet Ballistic Missile program, the Minuteman III ICBM, and primary power for the MK 21 re-entry vehicle. In 2012, the Trident II missile has achieved 143 successful test launches since 1989—a record unmatched by any other large ballistic missile or space launch vehicle. The most prominent Li-ion batteries made by Yardney have powered the Mars Explorer Rover missions (Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity), the USAF B-2 Bomber and Global Hawk aircraft, and the US Navy Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). One of the future applications for Yardney s Li-ion batteries is NASA s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). 

Several types of primary batteries have been developed that use lithium-metal anodes and solid cathodes. This entry reviews the more common commercial systems, namely Li-FeS2, Li-MnOa, and Li-CFx- Readers are referred to the relevant sections for information on Li-V20s and Li-Ag2V40ii cells that are used for reserve and medical battery applications, respectively. There has been a wide range of cathodes developed in the laboratory and also marketed for specialty applications [1], but most have never been produced commercially. (Li-CuO cells were made for some military applications [2], but production was discontinued in the mid-1990s). Before going into details on the aforementioned three types mostly used in consumer applications, we will cover the main characteristics that they have in common. 

Table 16.1 shows a selection of the most important applications. Primary button cells normally cover the load range from pA to mA. The mA range can be covered by primary and by secondary cells. For heavy loads in the A range mostly secondary batteries are chosen. 

For battery applications the secondary structure of the carbons is relevant also. The preparations mostly used have a particle sizes of about 10 pm. Electrodes made from these particles together with carbon black and binders are highly porous with an extremely big microscopic inner surface. Hence, even at low microscopic current densities the lithium anodes of the intercalation type can be loaded nearly as high as the very reactive but relatively small macroscopic surfaces of the compact pure metallic anodes of primary batteries. 

Battery market surveys indicate that C-Zn primary batteries are widely used worldwide for low-power battery applications. The survey further indicates that shelf-life performance has improved 750% and current leakage has reduced significantly during the last 90 years. This particular battery is available in two distinct design configurations, namely the standard version, which uses natural manganese... 

Application tests This is the preferred method of testing the perfonnanee specified for primary batteries. Application tests are intended to simulate the actual use of a battery in a specific application. Table 4.6a illustrates typical appUcation tests. 

Table 6.7 illustrates the selection of primary and secondary batteries. As the power requirements of the application increase (going from the bottom of the list to the top) and the size of the battery becomes larger, the trend for the battery-of-choice shifts from the primary to the secondary battery. The primary battery dominates in the lower power applications and where a long service life is required, such as smoke detectors, implants and memory backup. 

Those applications in which the secondary battery is discharged (similar in use to a primary battery) and recharged after use, either in the equipment in which it was discharged or separately. Secondary batteries are used in this manner for convenience, for cost savings (as they can be recharged rather than replaced), or for power drains beyond the capability of primary batteries. Most consumer electronics, electric-vehicle, traction, industrial truck, and some stationary battery applications fall in this category. 

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