Development of the borohydride-air battery

我们现代社会的无数电子设备的能量和功率要求习惯于对为这些设备供电的电池系统施加严格的性能和成本要求。锂离子电池在电池市场的大部分领域占据主导地位。然而，存在成本和性能特性不太有利的应用，并且优选其它电池系统。对于助听器设备，锌空气电池目前占主导地位，但由于重量比能量低，操作时间相当短。本提案的重点是在纽扣电池配置的硼氢化物-空气电池的发展。这种电池可以提供高达七倍的重量比能量，它是无汞的（不像一些锌空气电池），重量轻，电化学反应的产物是无害的。拟议的硼氢化物-空气纽扣电池技术是世界上第一个，其实际开发代表了申请人研究团队的下一步，该研究团队基于NSERC Discovery赠款的六年基础研究。本提案的目的是评估硼氢化物-空气电池的市场潜力、商业机会和挑战。

The energy and power requirements of the myriad of electronic devices our modern society is accustomed to impose stringent performance and cost demands on the battery systems powering these devices. Lithium-ion batteries dominate large segments of the battery market. However, there are applications where the cost and performance characteristics are less advantageous and other battery systems are preferred. For hearing aid devices, the zinc-air battery dominates presently but the operating time is fairly short due to low gravimetric specific energy. The present proposal focuses on the development of a borohydride-air battery in a coin-cell configuration. This battery could offer up to seven times higher gravimetric specific energy, it is mercury-free (unlike some zinc-air batteries), light-weight and the products of the electrochemical reactions are harmless. The proposed borohydride-air coin-cell battery technology is a world-wide first and its practical development represents the next step for the applicant's research team based on six years of fundamental research generously supported by NSERC Discovery grants. The objective of the present proposal is to evaluate the market potential, business opportunities and challenges for the borohydride-air battery.