Abstract: A bipolar silver-iron plate is provided in which both the silver electrode and iron electrode are fully charged upon fabrication. The iron electrode may be formed in a standard manner. The silver anode is formed by applying a paste formed from polyvinyl alcohol, water and silver oxide powder to a fiber grid provided on the anodic side of the bipolar plate. When dried, the paste forms a silver oxide electrode which is fully charged. If desired, the iron electrode can be formed in the same manner. When so formed, potassium hydroxide should be added to the polyvinyl alcohol water solution to prevent oxidation of iron powder. The silver and iron electrodes formed by this manner are malleable and can thus be fabricated into a multi-ply sheet and rolled around a cylindrical core to form a jelly-roll battery.

Abstract: A separator for use in a silver-iron battery is provided having a case and a cover within which are disposed a positive silver electrode and negative iron electrode. A separator is provided between these two electrodes. The separator includes alternating layers of a low density, radiation-grafted polyethylene layer provided adjacent the silver electrode and a cellophane film layer provided adjacent the polyethylene layer. Additional alternating layers of polyethylene and cellophane film can be provided as desired. The separator of the present invention blocks migration of the silver ion while maintaining low resistance to electrolytic transfer. The separator of the present invention provides for improved low temperature performance for silver-iron battery cells.

Abstract: A sintered bipolar battery plate (10) is made containing two porous electrodes and a central, non-porous, metallic cell separator-current collector sheet (12) where the positive electrode contains sintered particles (14) of elemental silver sintered into an expanded metal sheet (18) and the negative electrode contains sintered particles (16) of elemental iron sintered into an expanded metal sheet (18), where the positive and negative electrodes are sintered to a thin, porous, metallic connection layer (20) selected from at least one of nickel fiber or nickel powder, which is sintered to the current collector (12). This plate (10) can be placed in a case (22) containing alkali hydroxide electrolyte and having metal end plates (29) for electrical connections.