Controlling hydrogen evolution on iron electrodes

In this manuscript, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to develop predictive equations that establish a link between hydrogen evolution and electrode manufacturing conditions, over a wide range of electrolyte systems. Basically, the intent was to investigate the incidence of LiOH and K₂S as electrolyte additives on cell performance. With this in mind, in-house built Fe/FeS based electrodes were cycled against commercially available nickel electrodes on a three electrode cell configuration. A 3×4 full factorial experimental design was proposed to investigate the combined effect of the aforementioned electrolyte additives. As a consequence, data from 144 cells were finally used in conducting the analysis and finding the form of the predictive equations. Our findings suggest that at the level of confidence a = 0.05, the presence of relatively large amounts of the soluble bisulphide would enhance the performance of the battery by reducing the evolution of hydrogen within the cell.