Abstract: A battery power supply has a primary battery to provide long service life and a secondary battery to provide short instantaneous power pulses required by loads with variable duty cycles and puslatile load profiles such as digital cellular phones. The primary battery is linked to the power pulse battery in parallel and in series to the load. In the pulse battery, one of the electrodes has at least two electroactive materials as components of the same electrode. These different electroactive materials are selected to have different discharge potentials, charging potentials, and voltage outputs. One of the materials provides a voltage output of a predetermined level and the other of the materials lowers the overall charging voltage of the electrode below that of the first material. The mixed electrode in the pulse battery permits the pulse battery to be charged by the primary battery during the off-pulse periods throughout a substantial portion of the entire discharge voltage range of the primary battery.

Abstract: A battery power supply has a primary battery to provide long service life and a secondary battery to provide short instantaneous power pulses required by loads with variable duty cycles and puslatile load profiles such as digital cellular phones. The primary battery is linked to the power pulse battery in parallel and in series to the load. In the pulse battery, one of the electrodes has at least two electroactive materials as components of the same electrode. These different electroactive materials are selected to have different discharge potentials, charging potentials, and voltage outputs. One of the materials provides a voltage output of a predetermined level and the other of the materials lowers the overall charging voltage of the electrode below that of the first material. The mixed electrode in the pulse battery permits the pulse battery to be charged by the primary battery during the off-pulse periods throughout a substantial portion of the entire discharge voltage range of the primary battery.

Abstract: The invention provides enhanced performance zinc for use in the negative element of zinc batteries and cells, comprising a mixture of thermally generated zinc particles and particles of electrochemically produced zinc, said particles of electrochemically produced zinc being present in a parts by weight ratio of at least 1:500 relative to said thermally generated zinc.

Abstract: The invention provides a zinc battery anode, comprising a substantially planar skeletal frame including conductive metal and having a portion of its surface area formed as open spaces, and further comprising an active zinc anode component encompassing the skeletal frame, the active anode component being formed of a slurry of porous granules comprising zinc, impregnated with and suspended in an electrolyte, and compacted under pressure to the skeletal frame.

Abstract: The invention provides a multi-cell, sealed, zinc-oxygen battery, comprising a container containing (a) a plurality of bi-cells, each cell having a housing provided with two major surfaces and accommodating a pair of oppositely-disposed, spaced-apart, air-permeable, liquid-impermeable cathodes in the form of oxygen-reduction electrodes, and defining between themselves a cavity configured to accommodate an anode of the battery and electrolyte, substantial portions of the major surfaces of the housing being removed, thus exposing major portions of the oxygen electrodes, and wherein the two major surfaces are partly recessed in such a way as to form, in conjunction with a similarly-recessed outer surface of a major wall of an adjacent cell housing, an inter-cathode gas space between adjacent cells with a plurality of oxygen access openings leading thereto; (b) a dead space volume between inner surfaces of the housing and the plurality of bi-cells; and (c) pressurized oxygen supply means for feeding oxygen to the

Abstract: The invention provides a water-activated, deferred-action battery having a housing containing at least one cell, comprising at least one anode selected from the group consisting of magnesium, aluminum, zinc and alloys thereof; a cathode comprising a skeletal frame including conductive metal and having a portion of its surface area formed as open spaces, and further comprising a heat-pressed, rigid static bed of active cathode material encompassing the skeletal frame, the cathode material being formed of cuprous chloride, sulfur, carbon and a water-ionizable salt and being compacted and fused under pressure and heat to itself and to the skeletal frame, to form a heat-fused, conductive, electrochemically active phase; at least one cavity separating the cathode and the at least one anode, and at least one aperture leading to the at least one cavity for the ingress of an electrolyte-forming, aqueous liquid.

Abstract: The invention provides a transport and storage vessel containing a slurry of zinc and an aqueous alkaline solution utilizable as an electric fuel for a zinc-air battery, the vessel being provided with at least one hydrogen vent for venting any H.sub.2 produced by said slurry.

Abstract: The invention provides a refueling system for automated recharging of zinc-air batteries of the type having a plurality of active zinc anode elements formed of active zinc material attached to a support frame immersed in an aqueous alkaline electrolyte in a battery casing, each anode element being in alternate array with an air cathode, the system comprising automated means for simultaneously separating a plurality of spent anodes from the casing, means for removing used electrolyte from the casing, transport means for conveying spent anodes to an anode processing station, the anode processing station, at which zinc which has been at least partly oxidized is removed from the support frame, means for attaching new or reconstituted active zinc material to a cleaned support frame to form an active zinc anode, automated means for simultaneously introducing a plurality of active zinc anodes into the casing, and means for introducing fresh electrolyte into the casing.

Abstract: A method for the inhibition of corrosion in particulate zinc, comprises the step of subjecting the zinc in the form of an alkaline slurry to the action of a corrosion inhibiting effective amount of a corrosion inhibitor which is at least one oxide selected from the oxides of antimony, bismuth, cadmium, gallium, indium, lead, mercury, thallium and tin, and which preferably constitutes 0.05-4.0 parts by weight, based on the weight of the zinc. The particulate zinc may be that recovered electrolytically from at least partially spent electrolyte from a zinc-air battery. Corrosion inhibited particulate zinc which has been treated according to the above method, as well as a mixture of (untreated) particulate zinc with such treated zinc, also form part of the invention.

Abstract: A process for the regeneration of an at least partially spent Zn-alkali slurry for use in metal-air batteries, including subjecting the slurry to at least the steps of (i) separating the slurry into dissolved and undissolved phases; (ii) electrolyzing the separated dissolved phase so that Zn deposits on a cathode in removable form; (iii) removing Zn from the cathode and consolidating the Zn into particles; and (iv) combining the Zn from step (iii) with the separated undissolved phase from step (i) and an additional aqueous Group Ia metal hydroxide.

Abstract: A rechargeable, electrical power storage system employing an electrical power storage medium in the form of a slurry containing active metal particles and an electrolyte solution, which system includes one or more metal-air cells, each including outer electrode apparatus including air electrode apparatus and being configured to define a liquid permeable housing; a volume of the active metal particles arranged within the housing so as to define a static bed which is saturated with the electrolyte solution; inner electrode apparatus arranged within the housing so as to be surrounded by the static bed. The system also includes apparatus for circulating an electrolyte solution through the static bed so as to dissolve discharge products that form therein as the slurry becomes electrically discharged, and apparatus for removing the dissolved discharge products from the circulating electrolyte. The electrical power storage system may be used for powering an electric vehicle.

Abstract: A slurry for use in metal-air batteries comprises an admixture of particulate porous zinc, an aqueous solution of at least one Group Ia metal hydroxide, an inorganic inhibitor ingredient effective to inhibit the interaction of porous zinc with the Group Ia metal hydroxide which would otherwise result in the evolution of hydrogen gas, a gelling agent, a particulate and/or fibrous filler, a labelling agent, and a dissolved electrolyte extender.

Abstract: An electrical power storage unit has one or more metal-gas electrical cells, each cell including a pair of generally planar outer electrode units configured to define therebetween an interior space for containing an electrical power storage medium and an inner electrode unit mounted between the pair of outer electrode units so as to be in electrically conductive contact with the electrical power storage medium and define a plurality of volumes each having a pair of open ends, each open end facing an adjacent outer electrode unit. The power storage medium is a slurry containing active metal particles and an electrolyte solution. The inner electrode unit is configured for removable insertion within the interior space. The volumes defined by the inner electrode unit are configured so as to contain portions of the power storage slurry such that removal of the inner electrode unit from the interior space causes the simultaneous removal therefrom of the major part of the power storage slurry.

Abstract: The invention provides an electrode for use in a primary metal/air battery or in a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell comprising a current-collecting metallic structure and a metallic foamed or fiber mat having a first surface attached to a first surface of the structure, a second surface of the mat being impregnated with an inner hydrophobic waterproof barrier layer coated with an outer active catalytic layer.

Abstract: The invention provides an air cathode in combination with an oxygen-rich electrolyte-immiscible organic fluid for supplying oxygen thereto, as well as providing metal/air batteries and hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells incorporating the same.

Abstract: The invention provides a bipolar electrode for use in a primary metal/air battery of the type having a metallic slurry anode, the electrode comprising a current-collecting, electrolyte-impervious metallic structure having a first surface for collecting current from the metallic slurry anode, and a metallic air cathode spaced from the structure and having a plurality of electrically-conductive protrusions extending at least from a central area of a first surface thereof and attached to a second surface of the structure, a second surface of the air cathode being provided with an inner hydrophobic waterproof barrier layer which is impermeable to electrolyte but permeable to oxygen gas and coated with an outer active catalytic layer.