Electrochemical cell structure including an ionomeric barrier

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9685684-B1
Application number	US-201313943566-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 16, 2013
Priority date	Jul 17, 2012
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

An apparatus includes an electrochemical half-cell comprising: an electrolyte, an anode; and an ionomeric barrier positioned between the electrolyte and the anode. The anode may comprise a multi-electron vanadium phosphorous alloy, such as VP x , wherein x is 1-5. The electrochemical half-cell is configured to oxidize the vanadium and phosphorous alloy to release electrons. A method of mitigating corrosion in an electrochemical cell includes disposing an ionomeric barrier in a path of electrolyte or ion flow to an anode and mitigating anion accumulation on the surface of the anode.

First claim

It is claimed:

1. A apparatus comprising:
an electrochemical half-cell comprising:
an electrolyte;
an anode; and
an ionomeric barrier directly connected to the anode;
wherein the ionomer of the ionomeric barrier comprises a polymer with attached cationic functional groups; and
wherein the attached cationic functional groups is selected from: quaternary ammonium, phosphonium, sulfonium, complexed metal cations, and resonance-stabilized cations, pyridinium, imidazolium, and guanidinium functional groups; and
wherein the anode comprises vanadium phosphorus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the anode comprises a metal subject to corrosion by oxidation.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a battery.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte comprises an aqueous solution.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the polymer base of the ionomeric barrier is selected from the group consisting of: poly(phenylene), poly(sulfone), poly(ethylene), poly(arylene ether), poly(ether ether ketone), poly(styrene), or polymers with perfluorinated backbones.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ionomeric barrier is coupled to the anode.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an air cathode.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus further comprises a separator and a cathode, the separator positioned between the anode and the cathode.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the ionomeric barrier has a hydroxide conductivity of 20 to 100 mS cm −1 .

Assignees

• Sandia Corp
• Sandia Llc Nat Tech & Eng Solutions

Inventors

• Lambert Timothy N
• Hibbs Michael

Classifications

• H01M12/06 Primary

  with one metallic and one gaseous electrode · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M4/5805

  Phosphides · CPC title

• H01M12/08

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

• H01M2300/0082

  Organic polymers · CPC title