SBIR Phase I: In Situ Cell Studies of Dense Nanostructured Nickel Oxide Battery Electrodes

*** 9761362肖这个小企业创新研究一期项目旨在证明开发一种令人兴奋的新型“纳米相”材料（即纳米材料）独特性能的可行性。原子尺度的粒子，在几个压力计的数量级，其中1nm = 10埃)作为高性能可充电镍碱性电池的活性成分。美国纳米公司（USN）的负责人开发了合成和加工纳米结构电池材料的专有技术。USN已经开始努力制造高密度镍电极，其中活性材料是纳米孔（和介孔），因此孔隙表面积保持高，有效的电解质灌溉，但与传统的所谓“球形”氢氧化镍配制的电极相比，总孔隙体积减少。增加的密度导致更高的容量。在初步的实验室细胞试验中，USN的利用率很高。第二阶段计划将开发基于优化电极的原型电池。这种新颖的方法可以应用于各种各样的电池材料。可充电电池在世界范围内的市场份额每年超过160亿美元，其中碱性电池占20%的市场份额（每年30亿美元）。这将对医疗、商业（电动工具）和消费者应用的改进电池，以及用于无绳割草机、踏板车、电动汽车和混合动力汽车的大容量电池产生深远影响。* * *

*** 9761362 Xiao This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of exploiting the unique properties of an exciting new class of "nanophase" materials (ie. atomic-scale particles on the order of several manometers, where 1 nm = 10 angstroms) as the active ingredients for high performance rechargeable nickel alkaline batteries. US Nanocorp's (USN) principals have developed proprietary techniques for the synthesis and processing of nanostructred battery materials. USN has begun efforts to fabricate high density nickel electrodes where the active material is nanoporous (and mesoporous), so that the pore surface area remains high for effective electrolyte irrigation, yet the total pore volume is reduced in comparison to electrodes formulated from conventional and so called "spherical" nickel hydroxide. The increased density results in higher capacity. High utilization has been achieved by USN in preliminary lab cell tests. The Phase II program will develop prototype cells based on optimized electrodes. This novel approach can be applied to a wide array of battery materials. Rechargeable batteries comprise a word-wide business of more than $16 B/annum, of which alkaline batteries have a 20% market share ($3 B/annum). This would have profound implications for improved batteries for medical, commercial (power tool), and consumer applications, as well as large capacity batteries for cordless lawn mowers, scooters, electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. ***