Magnesium oxygen battery

#The present disclosure relates to a magnesium oxygen battery.

#This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.

#Rechargeable magnesium oxygen batteries are suitable for use in hybrid and electric vehicles for vehicle propulsion, but are subject to improvement. For magnesium oxygen batteries to be rechargeable, they must have a non-aqueous magnesium ion conductor. For example, a non-aqueous type magnesium oxygen battery capable of providing a discharge voltage that is greater than the discharge voltage of existing magnesium oxygen batteries would be desirable. In particular, there is a need for a high power output, high energy density by mass and by volume, magnesium oxygen battery capable of generating a discharge voltage greater than 1.1V, which is the discharge voltage of current magnesium oxygen batteries that use a 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-oxyl (TEMPO) anion complex as an promoter. The present teachings address this need.

#The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

#FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a non-aqueous type magnesium oxygen battery according to the present teachings;

#FIG. 2 is a chart illustrating x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of MgO2 powder synthesized according to the present teachings;

#Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.

#With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary non-aqueous type magnesium oxygen battery according to the present teachings is illustrated at reference numeral 10. The battery 10 generally includes a negative electrode 12, a positive electrode 14, and a non-aqueous electrolytic solution 16 between the negative electrode 12 and the positive electrode 14. The arrangement of the battery 10 illustrated is for exemplary purposes only. The battery 10 can have numerous other configurations in addition to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1.

#The negative electrode 12 can be any suitable electrode configured to adsorb magnesium and release magnesium ions. The negative electrode 12 may include any suitable active material layer configured to adsorb and release the magnesium ion. The active material of the negative electrode 12 is not limited to a specific material. Instead, the active material may be any suitable conventional material. For example, the active material can be metallic magnesium having a diameter of 14 millimeters and a thickness of 0.1 millimeters (with 99.9% purity made by Goodfellow Cambridge Limited, for example). Alternatively, the active material may be a metallic material such as magnesium alloy, or a compound for adsorbing and releasing the magnesium ion. Still further, the active material may be a combination of these materials. An accessory component of the magnesium alloy may be included, such as aluminum, zinc, manganese, silicon, calcium, iron, copper or nickel. The negative electrode 12 can be arranged in any suitable manner, such as on a lower casing 20 of the battery 10, for example. The lower casing 20 may be made of any suitable material, such as stainless steel. The lower casing 20 can include an electrical connection location 22 for the negative electrode 12.