High ambient pressure tolerant battery cell
AssigneeSouth 8 Technologies, Inc.
InventorsCyrus S. Rustomji, Elena Machado
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a design for an electrochemical energy-storage cell that can withstand high-pressure environments. The cell has a gas-tight cell housing that encloses an electrolyte in contact with an electrode assembly. The cell housing defines a cell volume. A pressure-equalizing member is connected to the cell housing and constructed to displace a portion of the cell volume to equalize a pressure differential between an external pressure on the cell and an interior pressure of the cell. The electrolyte remains in a liquid or gas phase when the pressure-equalizing member displaces the portion of the cell volume and equalizes the pressure differential.
Claims22
An electrochemical cell (5) comprising:
- a gas-tight cell housing (15) enclosing an electrolyte (20) in contact with an electrode assembly (10), the cell housing (15) defining a cell volume (17) and enclosing a solvent having a vapor pressure above 100 kPa at a temperature of 293.15 K;
- a pressure-equalizing member (30) connected to the cell housing (15) and constructed to simultaneously (1) displace (37) a portion of the cell volume (17) to equalize a pressure differential between an external pressure on the electrochemical cell (5) and an interior pressure of the electrochemical cell (5), and (2) maintain a gas-tight seal, wherein the pressure differential exists due to the external pressure on the electrochemical cell (5) being greater than the interior pressure of the electrochemical cell (5);
- wherein the electrolyte (20) remains in a liquid phase when the pressure-equalizing member (30) displaces (37) the portion of the cell volume (17) and equalizes the pressure differential;
- and
- wherein the solvent remains in a gas or liquid phase when the pressure-equalizing member (30) displaces (37) the portion of the cell volume (17) and equalizes the pressure differential.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.