Development of Nickel Oxide/Hydrogen Multilayer Bipolar Battery for Pulsed Power.

This program is concerned with the development of a nickel oxidehydrogen battery for pulsed power applications. It is based on thin film nickel oxide cathodes and metal hydride Lanthanum-Nickel 5 anodes. Thin film nickel oxides were prepared by reactive RF sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, anodic oxidation of nickel and by cathodic precipitation of nickel hydroxide. Thin LaNi5 films were prepared by rf sputtering from target of the same composition. Sputtered films showed much more irreversible electrochemical behavior than vapor deposited and anodically formed nickel oxides. Initial nickel oxide pulse currents were several hundred mAsq. cm. Only a fraction of the electrode capacity was accessible at short times 10 msec. The LaNi5 electrodes were electrochemically reversible for the hydrogen storage reaction, and pulse currents of thin film LaNi5Hx electrodes were of the same magnitude as the non-sputtered NiOx. Rates appear limited by surface reaction kinetics and by bulk diffusion. Keywords Storage Batteries, Electrodes.