Electrical characterization testing of sealed nickel-zinc batteries

Abstract

Sealed nickel-zinc batteries are being developed for commercial applications. The nickel-zinc system offers many advantages including a unique combination of high performance and low-cost. Electrical characterization testing currently underway includes electrical performance and charge efficiency as function of temperature and charge efficiency as a function of state-of-charge. Thermal testing includes basic calorimetry and thermal modeling and analysis at the cell and battery level. Life cycle testing includes discharge capacity and voltage performance as a function of cycling, charging characteristics as a function of cycling, the effect of overcharge on performance and cycle life, cell internal impedance as a function of cycling and cycle life as a function of depth-of-discharge (DOD). Cells currently yield more than 600 cycles at 80% DOD and 11,000 cycles at 10% DOD.