Silver zinc, secondary

J.J. Lander, R. D. Weaver, A.J. Salkind, J.J. Kelley in Characteristics of Separators for Alkaline Silver Oxide Zinc Secondary Batteries. Screening Methods (Eds. J.E. Cooper, A. Fleischer), NASA Technical Report NAS 5-2860,1964. 

The first practical silver—zinc battery was developed more then 60 years ago. Since then, primary and secondary silver—zinc batteries have attracted a variety of applications due to their high specific energy, proven reliability and safety, and the highest power output per unit weight and volume of all commercially available batteries. However, they find very limited use in commercial applications, because of their high price and limited cycle life. Development of a battery separator which will improve the performance and life of zinc based alkaline cells has been... 

For battery separators, regenerated cellulose is placed on the surface of nonwoven so that the nonwoven is available to promote the wicking of the electrolyte. The nonwovens should not allow the penetration of viscose into itself. Suitable nonwovens are made from polypropylene, poly(vinyl alcohol), and hardwood hemps. Regenerated cellulose films are commonly used in alkaline manganese cells, both primary and secondary, in NiCd industrial batteries, as well as in silver—zinc batteries. 

The nickel—zinc (NiZn) system is attractive as a secondary cell because of its high energy density and low material cost and the low level of potential pollutants contained. The widespread use of nickel-zinc batteries, particularly as electric vehicle power sources, would be strongly enhanced by significantly extending the deep-discharge cycle life beyond the current level of 100—300 cycles. Considerable work has been done in the past to develop a suitable separator for nickel— and silver—zinc batteries. 272 An excellent discussion of separator development is contained in a comprehensive review. 2 ... 

The separator assembly is the most critical component of zinc-silver oxide secondary cells. In addition to its normal function of preventing contact and short circuit between electrodes of different polarity, a separator in this system must also ... 

Zinc-silver oxide secondary cells with capacities of 0.5-100 Ah are manufactured for use in space satellites, military aircraft, submarines and... 

Zinc electrodes for secondary silver-zinc batteries are made by one of three general methods the dry-powder process, the slurry-pasted process, or the electroformed process The active material used in any of the processes for the manufacture of electrodes is a finely divided zinc oxide powder, USP grade 12. 

In silver batteries, the silver oxide-zinc secondary batter has found its place in applications where energy delivered per unit of weight and space is of prime importance. The major disadvantages lie in their high cost and relatively short life. Consequently, a large pari of the silver battery market is concerned with defense and space components, See also Batteries. 

The difficulty for secondary plants is that, whilst the de-silverizing process (outlined in Section 15.3) can be used for the removal of low levels of silver in secondary lead bullion (i.e., up to 0.01 wt.%), the same amount of zinc must be added as for primary bullion that contains up to 0.5 wt.% silver. With this method, silver cannot be removed economically from recycled lead, as the cost of zinc alone... 

Lander JJ, Weaver RD, Salkind AJ, Kelley JJ (1964) In Cooper JE, Fleischer A (eds) Characteristics of separators for alkaline silver oxide zinc secondary batteries. Screening methods. NASA Technical Report NAS 5-2860... 

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). 

As with the primary battery systems, significant performance improvements have been made with the older secondary battery systems, and a number of newer types, such as the silver-zinc, the nickel-zinc, nickel-hydrogen, and lithium ion batteries, and the high-temperature system, have been introduced into commercial use or are under advanced development. Much of the development work on new systems has been supported by the need for high-performance batteries for portable consumer electronic applications and electric vehicles. Figure 22.1 illustrates the advances achieved in and the projections of the performance of rechargeable batteries for portable applications. 

FIGURE 33.1 Cutaway view of typical prismatic zinc/silver oxide or cadmium/silver oxide secondary cell. 

In general, secondary silver-zinc and silver-cadmium cells require up to three different separators, as shown in Fig. 33.1. The inner separator, or positive interseparator, serves both as an electrolyte reservoir and as a barrier to minimize oxidation of the main separator by the highly oxidative silver electrode. This separator is usually made of an inert fiber such as nylon or polypropylene. 

J. C. Brewer, R. Doreswamy, and L. G. Jackson, Life Testing of Secondary Silver-Zinc Cells for the Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle, Proc. 25th lECEC, Reno, Nev., Aug. 1990. 

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