Development of the borohydride-air battery

现代社会对无数电子设备的能源和电力需求已经习惯了对为这些设备供电的电池系统提出严格的性能和成本要求。锂离子电池占据了电池市场的大部分份额。然而，在一些应用中，成本和性能特征不那么有利，而其他电池系统是首选。目前助听器以锌空气电池为主，但重量比能较低，使用时间较短。本提案的重点是在硬币电池结构的硼氢化物-空气电池的发展。这种电池可以提供高达7倍的重量比能，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。提议的硼氢化物-空气硬币电池技术是世界上第一个，其实际发展代表了申请人研究团队在NSERC发现基金慷慨支持的六年基础研究的下一步。本提案的目的是评估硼氢化物-空气电池的市场潜力、商机和挑战。

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.