Patents Examined by James Erwin
  • Patent number: 9406926
    Abstract: Disclosed is an anode for a lithium secondary battery. The anode includes a current collector in the form of a wire and a porous anode active material layer coated to surround the surface of the current collector. The three-dimensional porous structure of the active material layer increases the surface area of the anode. Accordingly, the mobility of lithium ions through the anode is improved, achieving superior battery performance. In addition, the porous structure allows the anode to relieve internal stress and pressure, such as swelling, occurring during charge and discharge of a battery, ensuring high stability of the battery while preventing deformation of the battery. These advantages make the anode suitable for use in a cable-type secondary battery. Further disclosed is a lithium secondary battery including the anode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: LG CHEM, LTD.
    Inventors: Yo-Han Kwon, Je-Young Kim, Ki-Tae Kim, Heon-Cheol Shin, Hyung-Man Cho, Hye-Ran Jung
  • Patent number: 9406932
    Abstract: In at least one embodiment, a lithium-ion battery is provided comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, an electrolyte, and a separator situated between the electrodes. At least one of the electrodes may include a proton absorbing material. The proton absorbing material may be an atomic intermetallic material including a proton absorbed state. The proton absorbing material may react with protons in the electrolyte to reduce moisture formation and cathode degradation in the battery. The proton absorbing material may absorb at least 0.5 wt. % hydrogen and may be present in the anode and/or cathode in an amount from 0.01 to 5 wt. %.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Feng Li, Chi Paik, Jun Yang
  • Patent number: 9406934
    Abstract: An alkaline, rechargeable electrochemical cell includes a pasted electrode structure in which a composition comprising a paste matrix component includes cobalt in an amount greater than 6 weight percent ranging up to 14 weight percent. The matrix may also include a rare earth such as yttrium. The composition further includes particles of nickel hydroxide dispersed in the matrix, and these particles include cobalt levels ranging from greater than 8 atomic percent up to 15 atomic percent. Cells incorporating these materials have good charging efficiency at elevated temperatures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: BASF Corporation
    Inventors: John M. Koch, Cristian Fierro
  • Patent number: 9406921
    Abstract: A prismatic secondary battery is provided with a negative/positive electrode collector (18), which are disposed on either one of a wound negative/positive electrode substrate exposed portion (15), and a negative/positive electrode collector receiving member (19) which is disposed on another surface. At least one of the negative/positive electrode collector has a recess portion (30) formed in part on a surface on the side not facing the negative/positive electrode substrate exposed portions so as to be thinner than the thickness of the other portion. Resistance welding is carried out in this recessed part, thereby a large welding nugget is formed between the negative/positive electrode exposed portion and the negative/positive electrode collector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki Hattori, Takenori Kimura, Yasuhiro Yamauchi, Toshiyuki Nohma
  • Patent number: 9401514
    Abstract: The present invention provides a fuel cell separator and a method for surface treatment of the same, in which ionized nanoparticles are attached to the surface of a separator to form fine projections such that the surface of the separator exhibits superhydrophobicity. For this purpose, the present invention provides a method for surface treatment of a fuel cell separator which provides nanoparticles for forming fine projections on the surface of the separator to a discharge electrode and ionizes the nanoparticles by an arc discharge generated in the discharge electrode. The ionized nanoparticles are then attached to the surface of the separator by an electric field generated by applying a high voltage between the separator and the discharge electrode, thereby forming fine projections for imparting superhydrophobicity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2016
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Haeng Jin Ko, Sae Hoon Kim, Yoo Chang Yang, Yun Seok Kim
  • Patent number: 9397325
    Abstract: A safety vent including: a vent 3 that allows gas generated inside a laminate type battery 2 to release to the outside, a gas permeated membrane 4 through which the gas permeates, and a housing case 5 that internally houses the vent 3 and the gas permeated membrane 4, and that is attached to a gas spout out port 24 formed in a laminated exterior casing 21 of the laminate type battery 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: OPTNICS PRECISION CO., LTD
    Inventors: Seichin Kinuta, Atsushi Nishino, Yoshiyuki Ichinosawa, Masashi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 9385397
    Abstract: The present invention provides a battery or supercapacitor current collector which is prelithiated. The prelithiated current collector comprises: (a) an electrically conductive substrate having two opposed primary surfaces, and (b) a mixture layer of carbon (and/or other stabilizing element, such as B, Al, Ga, In, C, Si, Ge, Sn, Pb, As, Sb, Bi, Te, or a combination thereof) and lithium or lithium alloy coated on at least one of the primary surfaces, wherein lithium element is present in an amount of 1% to 99% by weight of the mixture layer. This current collector serves as an effective and safe lithium source for a wide variety of electrochemical energy storage cells, including the rechargeable lithium cell (e.g. lithium-metal, lithium-ion, lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, lithium-graphene, lithium-carbon, and lithium-carbon nanotube cell) and the lithium ion based supercapacitor cell (e.g, symmetric ultracapacitor, asymmetric ultracapacitor, hybrid supercapacitor-battery, or lithium-ion capacitor).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2016
    Assignee: Nanotek Instruments, Inc.
    Inventors: Aruna Zhamu, Yanbo Wang, Bor Z. Jang
  • Patent number: 9379407
    Abstract: In a fuel cell stack constituting a fuel cell module, electrolyte/electrode assemblies and separators are alternately laminated. An electrolyte/electrode assembly is arranged on one end of the fuel cell stack in the lamination direction, while a separator is arranged on the other end of the fuel cell stack in the lamination direction. A terminal separator is arranged adjacent to the electrolyte/electrode assembly, while a load relaxation member is arranged adjacent to the separator. The terminal separator controls the supply of a fuel gas to a fuel gas channel, and the load relaxation member is configured of a laminate of a plurality of flat metal plates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2016
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ayaka Nango, Tetsuya Ogawa, Yukihiko Kiyohiro
  • Patent number: 9362568
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to electrodes and implementations such as batteries. As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, an apparatus includes a nanocarbon substrate having at least one of graphene and carbon nanotubes, and a hybrid electrode including a cobalt oxide/carbon nanotube (CoO/CNT) catalyst and a Ni—Fe-layered double hydride (LDH) catalyst. The catalysts and substrate facilitate transfer of charge carriers. Various aspects are directed to a battery type device having an anode and a single or split cathode with the respective catalysts on the cathode to facilitate oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions for discharging and charging the battery type device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
    Inventor: Hongjie Dai
  • Patent number: 9356313
    Abstract: At least one zone made of lithium-containing glass-ceramic material, in a solid electrolyte for a lithium battery, is formed from a lithium-containing ceramic material, advantageously in the form of a layer such as a thin film. It is obtained by melting of at least a part of the lithium-containing ceramic material, followed by a recrystallization heat treatment. Melting is obtained by a laser beam irradiation operation, which enables fabrication of the solid electrolyte to be performed directly on a multilayer stack comprising certain active components of the lithium battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: COMMISSARIAT À L'ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
    Inventors: Sami Oukassi, Samir Guerroudj, Michaël Roffat
  • Patent number: 9343782
    Abstract: The present disclosure discloses a battery safety apparatus. The battery safety apparatus according to the present disclosure measures a voltage of a battery in the event of vehicle collision, and when the voltage is higher than a reference voltage value, that it, when the battery is charged over a reference charge amount, discharges the battery and at the same time cools the battery using a cooling device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: LG CHEM, LTD.
    Inventor: Dong-Keun Kwon
  • Patent number: 9343781
    Abstract: An Adaptive Current-collector Electrochemical (ACE) system utilizes an array of contact pads and associated current control transistors to control localized current generation in discrete regions of a battery. Each contact pad is formed on a battery electrode (anode or cathode) and coupled to an associated discrete battery region, and is connected by an associated transistor to a current collection plate. Sensors are used to monitor operating parameters (e.g., localized current flow and operating temperature) of each discrete battery region, and a control circuit uses the sensor data to control the operating state of the transistors, whereby localized current flow through each transistor is increased, decreased or turned off according to measured local operating parameters. The control circuit utilizes local control circuits that process local sensor data using “stand-alone” control logic, or a central controller that processes all sensor data and coordinates transistor operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated
    Inventors: Eric J. Shrader, Robert Sean McHenry
  • Patent number: 9337493
    Abstract: This invention provides metal-foam electrodes for batteries and fuel cells. In some variations, an electrode includes a first metal layer disposed on a second metal layer, wherein the first metal layer comprises an electrically conductive, open-cell metal foam with an average cell diameter of about 25 ?m or less. The structure also includes smaller pores between the cells. The electrode forms a one piece monolithic structure and allows thicker electrodes than are possible with current electrode-fabrication techniques. These electrodes are formed from an all-fluidic plating solution. The disclosed structures increase energy density in batteries and power density in fuel cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2016
    Assignee: HRL Laboratories, LLC
    Inventors: Adam F. Gross, John Wang, Andrew P. Nowak
  • Patent number: 9324997
    Abstract: Technologies are generally described for a battery, a method for implementing a battery and a rechargeable battery system. In some examples, the rechargeable battery system includes a battery. The battery may include a first electrode including a tantalum component, a vanadium component and a boron component. The battery may further include a second electrode and an electrical insulator between the first and the second electrode. The battery system may include a housing, where the housing includes the first electrode, and where the housing is effective to communicate light and oxygen to the first electrode. A sensor may be disposed so as to be effective to detect a reaction of tantalum and oxygen in the housing and generate a reaction signal in response. A processor may be in electrical communication with the sensor and effective to receive the reaction signal and generate an indication based on the reaction signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC
    Inventor: Arockiadoss Thevasahayam
  • Patent number: 9310444
    Abstract: A battery testing system according to an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure includes, among other things, a penetrating device and an impedance meter electrically connected to the penetrating device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Xiao Guang Yang, Renata Michaela Arsenault, Theodore James Miller
  • Patent number: 9312563
    Abstract: Provided is a method for manufacturing a secondary battery that can ensure a favorable charging state. A method for manufacturing a secondary battery according to an embodiment of the invention is a method for manufacturing a secondary battery where a wound body having a positive electrode sheet, a separator and a negative electrode sheet wound in a layered state in a housing, which includes a first step of accommodating the wound body into the housing; and a second step of hot-pressing the wound body through the housing from outside of the housing, the wound body being accommodated in the housing. The method preferably includes a third step of performing initial charging, confining a part substantially the same as a part where the wound body is hot-pressed through the housing in the second step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2016
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroaki Ikeda
  • Patent number: 9306229
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a fuel gas supply channel, a fuel off-gas discharge channel, an oxidant gas supply channel, an oxidant off-gas discharge channel, a first shut valve, a second shut valve, a shut valve controller, a temperature detector, a scavenging device, and an elapsed-time detector. The elapsed-time detector is configured to detect an elapsed time elapsed from a timing at which the fuel cell is shut down. The scavenging device scavenges the oxidant gas flow channel and the fuel gas flow channel in sequence if the elapsed time detected by the elapsed-time detector is within a first predetermined period of time. The scavenging device scavenges the fuel gas flow channel and the oxidant gas flow channel in sequence if the elapsed time detected by the elapsed-time detector is outside the first predetermined period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2016
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koichiro Miyata, Chihiro Wake
  • Patent number: 9300002
    Abstract: A three-dimensional electrode architecture for a supercapacitor and/or battery characterized by high power density and high energy density includes at least one negative electrode and at least one positive disposed in an interpenetrating manner. Also disclosed are corresponding or associated three-dimensional supercapacitors or batteries as well as methods for making the same.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2016
    Assignee: Illinois Institute of Technology
    Inventor: Leon Shaw
  • Patent number: 9287556
    Abstract: For use as electrode material for a lithium battery, porous templates are impregnated with a carbon feedstock that can be graphitized. This frequently results in only a low thickness of the deposited, graphite-like layer, such that generally several such infiltration and carbonation processes must be carried out consecutively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2016
    Assignee: Heraeus Quarzglas GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Christian Neumann, Joerg Becker
  • Patent number: 9276283
    Abstract: A self-propelled microbial fuel cell apparatus includes a microbial fuel cell with a cathode electrode and an anode electrode wherein the anode electrode is enclosed within an enclosure that has an opening in it. The microbial fuel cell is positioned within a self-propelled delivery vehicle so that the electrodes of the fuel cell are exposed to interface with a microbial environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: The United States of America, as Represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Wayne P. Liu, Adriane Q. Wotawa-Bergen, David B. Chadwick, Ken E. Richter, Yolanda M. Arias-Thode