Development of flat plate rechargeable alkaline manganese dioxide–zinc cells

This paper was focused on the development of prototypes for flat plate RAM™ (rechargeable alkaline manganese dioxide) cells. In contrast to cathodes used in cylindrical RAM™ cells, the mechanical stability is a significant issue for the preparation of flat plate cathodes. Therefore, the choice of an appropriate binder, e.g. Oppanol, is very important. In this work, an improved preparation process of flat plate RAM™ cathodes was developed by investigating the single steps of the preparation method. It was further demonstrated that the most critical factor of zinc electrode performance was the electrolyte content of the anode gel. Best overall cell performance was achieved at 40% zinc amount and a Zn/ZnO ratio of 5.0, in combination with an electrolyte content of 50.5%. In order to stabilise the γ-structure of manganese dioxide and to enhance rechargeability, the addition of barium compounds was also studied. Cell cycling has shown that flat plate RAM™ cells with BaSO4-modified cathodes outperformed control cells by 24%, mainly because of the minimised fade of discharge capacity. Moreover, the admixture of barium manganate to the cathode yielded more than 15% capacity improvement after 25 cycles, compared to the barium sulfate additive.