Separator for metal air cells

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11784375-B2
Application number	US-202117316087-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2021
Priority date	Sep 15, 2017
Publication date	Oct 10, 2023
Grant date	Oct 10, 2023

Abstract

An alkaline electrochemical cell includes a cathode; a gelled anode having an anode active material and an electrolyte; and a separator disposed between the cathode and the anode; wherein the separator includes a non-conductive, porous material having a mean pore size of about 1 micron to about 5 microns, a maximum pore size of about 19 microns, and an air permeability of about 0.5 cc/cm2/s to about 3.8 cc/cm2/s at 125 Pa.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An alkaline electrochemical cell comprising:
an air cathode;
an anode comprising an anode active material and an electrolyte; and
a separator disposed between the air cathode and the anode;
wherein:
the separator comprises a non-conductive, porous material having a mean pore size of about 1 micron to about 5 microns, a maximum pore size of about 19 microns, and an air permeability of about 0.5 cc/cm 2 /s to about 3.8 cc/cm 2 /s at 125 Pa; and
the alkaline electrochemical cell is a metal-air cell.

2. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the non-conductive, porous material comprises polyvinyl alcohol.

3. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the non-conductive, porous material is non-woven.

4. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 3 , wherein the non-conductive, porous material comprises polyvinyl alcohol.

5. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the separator has an air permeability of about 500 cc/cm 2 /min to about 3000 cc/cm 2 /min, at 1 KPa.

6. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the separator has a basis weight of about 20 g/m 2 to about 32 g/m 2 .

7. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the separator has a dry thickness of about 60 microns to about 120 microns.

8. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the separator comprises less than 3 full layers of the non-conductive, porous material.

9. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the separator comprises less than 4 full layers of the non-conductive, porous material.

10. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein about 20% to about 45% by weight of the anode active material relative to the total amount of anode active material has a particle size of less than about 75 microns, about 8% to about 25% by weight relative of the total zinc alloy has a particle size of greater than about 150 micrometers, and less than 10% by weight of the anode active material relative to the total amount of anode active material has a particle size of less than about 45 microns.

11. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the anode active material has an apparent density from about 2.50 g/cc to about 3.30 g/cc.

12. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte has a hydroxide concentration of about 24 wt % to about 37 wt %.

13. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the anode active material comprises a zinc alloy.

14. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 13 , wherein the zinc alloy comprises lead, indium, and aluminum.

15. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 13 , wherein the zinc alloy comprises from about 50 ppm to about 500 ppm of lead, from about 100 ppm to about 300 ppm of indium, and from about 20 to 750 ppm aluminum.

16. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 13 , wherein the zinc alloy comprises from about 130 ppm to about 270 ppm of bismuth and about 130 ppm to about 270 ppm of indium.

17. The alkaline electrochemical cell of claim 1 , wherein the anode further comprises a gellant.

Assignees

• Energizer Brands Llc

Inventors

• Armacanqui M Edgar
• Roszkowski Andrew J
• Crowe Donald Raymond
• Zhu Enqing
• Hadley John L
• Hennek Matthew
• Turba Tim F

Classifications

• H01M50/44 Primary

  Fibrous material · CPC title

• H01M4/244 Primary

  Zinc electrodes · CPC title

• H01M4/42

  Alloys based on zinc · CPC title

• H01M50/414

  Synthetic resins, e.g. thermoplastics or thermosetting resins · CPC title

• H01M50/489

  Separators, membranes, diaphragms or spacing elements inside the cells, characterised by their physical properties, e.g. swelling degree, hydrophilicity or shut down properties · CPC title