Characteristics of an Improved Inert-Cathode/Magnesium-Anode Sea-Water Battery

摘要

The inert-cathode/Mg-anode sea-water battery has demonstrated the capability to furnish power, generally in conjunction with a dc-dc converter, for a variety of marine underwater devices. A battery of this sort may be tailored to application and its performance predicted to within 10 to 20% of actual. Shelf life is long, upward from several years, on the basis of experience and materials. This shelf life presumes storage without the electrolyte and refrigeration. One exception exists in the case of the impulse cell where exposed storage periods in the order of 1 year lessens the magnitude and rate of cell response upon activation and the energy supplied over a given interval. Such loss may generally be compensated by initially allowing a greater margin of power. Operating life is adversely affected by accumulations of reaction products and varies with electrode spacing and current density. More than 60 days of continuous operation have been achieved at the reduced current density of about 1 ampere per square foot. Series-battery terminal voltages of about 1.5 volts are conveniently achieved in the interests of compactness and converter efficiency. Higher voltages in series systems are achieved with greater cell isolation. (Author)