Square section liquid metal batteries with grid device to suppress instabilities of fluids

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11211632-B2
Application number	US-201916439590-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2019
Priority date	Dec 25, 2018
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

Square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with a grid device to suppress instabilities of fluids. The LMBs include a shell, negative current collector, negative material, metallic nets/plates, grid device, electrolyte, positive material, rectangular holes on partitions of grid device, and positive current collector. The positive material, electrolyte, and negative material are filled in the shell and automatically stratified from bottom to top according to the density from large to small. The negative current collector is linked with negative material, and the positive current collector is linked with positive material. The grid device is composed of partitions which cross each other and pass through the negative material, the electrolyte vertically in sequence, and extend inside the positive material. There are rectangular holes opened on the grid device, and the vertical height of each rectangular hole is larger than the biggest displacement of electrolyte during charging and discharging processes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with a grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids, comprising:
a shell,
an electrical current collector of a negative electrode,
a negative material,
metallic nets or metallic plates,
a grid device,
an electrolyte,
a positive material,
rectangular holes,
an electrical current collector of a positive electrode;
wherein the positive material, the electrolyte and the negative material are filled and stratified in the shell from bottom to top; the positive material and the negative material are liquid metals or alloys; the electrolyte is liquid molten salt; densities of three layers have a sequence of positive material>electrolyte>negative material; the electrical current collector of the negative electrode and the electrical current collector of the positive electrode are linked with the negative material and the positive material respectively from outside of LMBs; the grid device within the shell is composed of partitions crossing each other, and the grid device passes through the negative material and the electrolyte vertically in sequence, and extends to an inside of the positive material; there is no gap between a top end of the grid device and the electrical current collector of the negative electrode to avoid movement of the negative material when an electrical current density changes; a bottom end of the grid device is lower than a maximum displacement of the electrolyte during a charging process, and extends to ⅔-½ of an initial height of the positive material to assure that the instabilities in LMBs are suppressed by the grid device during a whole process of charging/discharging; a core of each partition of the grid device is a metallic net or a metallic plate, and the rectangular holes are opened on the partitions of the grid device; a vertical height of each rectangular hole is larger than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte during charging/discharging to keep two liquid interfaces of LMBs at their own horizontal level respectively, and a distribution of the rectangular holes is to prevent a formation of a single enclosed induced magnetic loop in a whole liquid metal battery or a formation of a medium-sized enclosed induced magnetic field loop through the rectangular holes.

2. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids according to claim 1 , wherein:
the partitions are assembled to form a uniform grid in horizontal sections of LMBs; when a pair number of the partitions is greater than one, a special design is introduced for processing and installation; when the pair number of the partitions is even, a structure of the grid device is centrosymmetric and the grid device is mounted by splicing because of a limitation of a distribution of the rectangular holes; when placing the grid device with two pairs of partitions, two-stage splicing grid device is used; when the pair number of partitions is odd, the structure of the grid device is axisymmetric or centrosymmetric and the grid device is mounted by splicing because of the limitation of the distribution of the rectangular holes; when placing the grid device with three pairs of partitions, three-stage splicing grid device is used.

3. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids according to claim 1 , wherein:
there is no space between the grid device and side walls of LMBs, the partitions directly touch an inner wall of the shell; the top end of the grid device is directly embedded into the electrical current collector of the negative electrode, or directly contacts with the electrical current collector of the negative electrode; the bottom end of the grid device is lower than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte during the charging process, and extends to ⅔-½ of the initial height of the positive material; a thickness of each partition of the grid device is 1/60- 1/100 of a side width of the shell; a material of the grid device is electrically and magnetically insulated, and is corrosion resistant.

4. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids according to claim 1 , wherein:
regulations for the rectangular holes on the partitions comprise: firstly, the rectangular holes are set at special positions on the partitions, right next to inner walls of LMBs or right next to junctions of any two partitions; secondly, no magnetic induction line continually passes through four or more rectangular holes to form an enclosed loop; thirdly, except inside walls of LMBs, there is only one rectangular hole on each side edge of a grid, which is enclosed by the partitions or by the partitions and the inside wall/walls of LMBs; finally, a width of each rectangular hole is not greater than ⅕ of a corresponding width of the side edge of the grid, which is enclosed by the partitions or by the partitions and the inside wall/walls of LMBs and a lower limit of the width of each rectangular hole guarantees smooth flowing through by the liquid metals or the electrolyte.

5. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids according to claim 3 , wherein:
regulations for the rectangular holes on the partitions comprise: firstly, the rectangular holes are set at special positions on the partitions, right next to inner walls of LMBs or right next to junctions of any two partitions; secondly, no magnetic induction line continually passes through four or more rectangular holes to form an enclosed loop; thirdly, except inside walls of LMBs, there is only one rectangular hole on each side edge of a grid, which is enclosed by the partitions or by the partitions and the inside wall/walls of LMBs; finally, a width of each rectangular hole is not greater than ⅕ of a corresponding width of the side edge of the grid, which is enclosed by the partitions or by the partitions and the inside wall/walls of LMBs and a lower limit of the width of each rectangular hole is a minimal size that guarantees smooth flowing through by the liquid metals or the electrolyte.

6. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids according to claim 1 , wherein:
in the square section LMBs, a top end of each rectangular hole is higher than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte when it moves up during the discharging process; a bottom end of each rectangular hole is lower than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte when it moves down during the charging process, and the bottom end of each rectangular hole extends to ⅔- 7/12 of the initial height of the positive material; when the bottom end of the grid device only extends to the ⅔ of the initial height of the positive material, the bottom end of each rectangular hole and the bottom end of the grid device are at a same horizontal level.

7. The square section liquid metal batteries (LMBs) with the grid device to suppress the instabilities of fluids, according to claim 3 wherein:
in the square section LMBs, a top end of each rectangular hole is higher than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte when it moves up during the discharging process; a bottom end of each rectangular hole is lower than the maximum displacement of the electrolyte when it moves down during the charging process, and the bottom end of each rectangular hole extends to ⅔- 7/12 of the initial height of the positive material; when the bottom end of the grid device only extends to ⅔ of the initial height of the positive material, the bottom end of each rectangular hole and the bottom end of the grid device are at a same horizontal level.

Assignees

• Univ Dalian Tech

Inventors

• Li Benwen
• Liu Ke
• Chen Lu

Classifications

• H01M10/0563

  Liquid materials, e.g. for Li-SOCl2 cells · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M10/02 Primary

  Details (of electrodes H01M4/00; of non-active parts H01M50/00) · CPC title

• H01M4/38

  of elements or alloys · CPC title

• Y02P70/50

  Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product · CPC title