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US 6,207,324 B1Granted
Zinc sulfur battery
AssigneeTechnion Research & Development Foundation Limited
InventorStuart Licht
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AssigneeTechnion Research & Development Foundation Limited
InventorStuart Licht
Estimating the term…
An electric storage cell (10) comprises a zinc anode (12) and a sulfur cathode (14), wherein the zinc and the sulfur are in contact with an aqueous solution (22) containing sulfur during the process of battery discharge. In this invention, specific conditions for the aqueous sulfur electrolyte are chosen to overcome the normal ineffectiveness of zinc oxidation in the presence of aqueous zero valent sulfur. Normally, a zinc anode (12) cannot be oxidized in an aqueous solution containing sulfur, because the product of the discharge would be zinc sulfide. This zinc sulfide is a highly insoluble salt and creates a layer which passivates the zinc and renders it completely ineffective to battery discharge. The performance of the battery is made possible by high OH- and HS-ion concentrations formed by the addition of salts to the aqueous zero valent sulfur solution, and permits effective and efficient battery discharge.
A battery comprising two half-cells which are positioned in electrochemical contact with one another through an aqueous solution, wherein one of said half-cells comprises a zinc anode and the second half-cell comprises an aqueous solution of a concentrated metal cation hydrosulfide salt, a concentrated metal cation hydroxide salt and a reducible sulfur in an amount of at least 0.01 moles per kg, being positioned in an electron transferring contact with a current transferring electrocatalytic electrode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.