Three-dimensional carbon foam-supported electrode for metal-air batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10153527-B2
Application number	US-201214386463-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2012
Priority date	Mar 19, 2012
Publication date	Dec 11, 2018
Grant date	Dec 11, 2018

Abstract

The present invention describes an electrode material based on carbon foam impregnated with particulate carbon, and a method for preparing the electrode material. The electrode material may be used as a cathode active material in a metal-air/metal-oxygen battery, such as a lithium-air, sodium-air, magnesium-air, zinc-air, tin-air or silicon-air battery.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A metal-air battery comprising:
a negative electrode containing a negative-electrode active material;
a positive electrode using oxygen as a positive-electrode active material; and
an electrolyte medium arranged between the negative electrode and the positive electrode;
wherein:
the positive electrode contains carbon foam impregnated with particulate carbon,
the amount of particulate carbon expressed with respect to the volume of carbon foam is between 5 and 25 mg particulate carbon/cm 3 of carbon foam,
the particulate carbon has a specific surface area of between 20 and 2000 m 2 /g and an average primary particle diameter in a range of from 8 to 350 nm, and
the electrolyte medium comprises a non-aqueous organic solvent.

2. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon foam has a bulk density in a range of from 0.01 to 0.9 g/cm 3 .

3. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the carbon foam has a porosity of at least 5 ppi.

4. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the amount of particulate carbon expressed with respect to the volume of carbon foam is between 10 and 25 mg particulate carbon/cm 3 of carbon foam.

5. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode contains a catalyst selected from the group consisting of: transition metal oxides, mixed transition metal oxides, phthalocyanines, and metals.

6. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode contains a binder selected from the group consisting of: polyethylene, polypropylene, styrene-butadiene rubber, carboxymethylcellulose sodium salt, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymers, and homopolymers and copolymers of fluorinated monomers including tetrafluoroethylene, pentafluoropropylene, hexafluoropropylene, vinylidene fluoride, chlorotrifluoroethylene, perfluoroalkyl vinyl ethers, and sulfonate group-terminated perfluorovinyl ethers.

7. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode comprises:
a positive electrode active layer containing carbon foam impregnated with particulate carbon; and
a positive electrode current collector.

8. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , which is a lithium-air battery, sodium-air battery, magnesium-air battery, zinc-air battery, tin-air battery, or silicon-air battery.

9. The metal-air battery according to claim 8 , which is a lithium-air battery.

10. The metal-air battery according to claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode serves as a positive electrode current collector, and no separate positive electrode current collector is present in the metal-air battery.

Assignees

• Barde Fanny Jeanne Julie
• Toyota Motor Europe

Inventors

• Barde Fanny Jeanne Julie

Classifications

• H01M4/1393

  of electrodes based on carbonaceous material, e.g. graphite-intercalation compounds or CFx · CPC title

• H01M12/08 Primary

  composed of a half-cell of a fuel-cell type and a half-cell of the secondary-cell type · CPC title

• H01M4/133

  Electrodes based on carbonaceous material, e.g. graphite-intercalation compounds or CFx · CPC title

• Y02E60/128

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M12/06

  with one metallic and one gaseous electrode · CPC title