PROCEDURE FOR PREPARING AN INTEGRATED CARBON / ISOLATOR STRUCTURE AND ELECTROCHEMICAL ELEMENT CONTAINING SUCH A STRUCTURE

摘要

A thin, integrated carbon/insulator structure, and a method for fabricating same, for use in a primary electrochemical cell. A quantity of a wet carbon slurry material including a mixture of carbon black, water and/or isopropyl alcohol, and a binder such as finely-divided "Teflon" in suspension, is deposited onto a porous fiberglass substrate and rolled to a prescribed thickness. The rolling operation causes a portion of the slurry material to diffuse into the surface of the porous fiberglass substrate and permanently adhere to and unite with a surface portion of the fiberglass substrate in an integrated, interlocking fashion. The fiberglass substrate having the layer of carbon slurry material integrated therewith is then dried to cause the layer of carbon slurry material to dry and shrink to the form of a layer of carbon plaque having a network of cracks produced therethrough in a random pattern as a result of the shrinkage during drying. The layer of carbon plaque at this stage represents an aggregation of porous carbon globules. The layer of carbon plaque is re-rolled to close cracks at the upper surface of the layer while simultaneously establishing a desired thickness for the layer. After curing the above arrangement to increase adherence of the carbon globules to each other and to the fiberglass substrate, an integrated carbon/insulator structure of a desired size and configuration for use in a primary electrochemical cell can be cut out from the abovedescribed arrangement.