The Gillette Company

Other

Northeastern University

David L Pappas

Peter R Moses

Alexander Timothy Chenvainu

Richard P Welty

C Robert Parent

Thomas G Decker

Franco Lodato

Robert John Pavlinsky

Thomas C Richards

Guang Wei

Yelena Kouznetsova

Oleg Podoprigora

William J Wandeloski

Boris Makovetski

Sathya Motupally

Jonathan O'Neill

Rokeya Huq

G Steven Kelsey

Gregory P Lundie

Stuart Michael Davis

Rajan Ramaswamy

Brian J Bosy

Keith Buckle

Jeffrey A Hopwood

Joseph E Sunstrom

Daniel W Gibbons

Leo White

Stephen McDevitt

Sharon Lu

Edward Curelop

Gregory P Lundy

Battery cartridges are disclosed that include a housing having a plurality of air access openings configured to selectively control flow of air into the housing; and at least two adjacent metal-air electrochemical cells within the housing, each electrochemical cell having an outer gas permeable barrier membrane layer that defines the exterior surface of the electrochemical cell; wherein there is a gap between adjacent electrochemical cells in the housing and wherein the air access openings in the housing are positioned over or partially overlapping each gap.

Battery cartridges

A battery includes a cathode having an interior surface and an exterior surface, and defining a cavity and two open ends; a separator disposed adjacent to the interior surface of the cathode; an anode disposed adjacent to the separator and inside the cavity; an air-permeable, liquid-impermeable barrier layer disposed adjacent to the exterior surface of the cathode, and defining an exterior surface of the battery; two end members connected to the open ends of the cathode; and an anode current collector extending through the two end members. Methods designed such a battery is also disclosed.

Batteries and battery systems

A method of forming a nickel layer on a metal substrate forming the terminal contact area of the cathode casing for a zinc-air cell. A cathode casing in desired shape and size for a zinc-air cell is formed of a substrate metal such as cold rolled steel or stainless steel. A nickel layer is plated onto the cathode casing substrate metal over the terminal contact area and is subsequently heat treated resulting in reduction in the surface hardness. The method of heat treatment involves heating the substrate metal with nickel plated thereon in an inert atmosphere at temperatures preferably between about 860&#xb0; F. and 135&#xb0; F. The method reduces the nickel surface hardness to a level below 8 GPa. This improves the electrical contact with the hearing aid or other device being powered.

Method of forming a nickel layer on the cathode casing for a zinc-air cell

A non-hermetically sealed, electrochemical power source, includes a first electrode, a second electrode, a separator between the first electrode and the second electrode, and a membrane in fluid communication with an environment external to the battery. The second electrode is between the separator and the membrane. The membrane includes a first portion having a different property, e.g., density, porosity, mass transport resistance, thickness, or gas permeability, than a second portion of the membrane. Methods of designing an electrochemical cell cartridge are also disclosed.

A textured dual layer metal air cathode is disclosed. The cathode includes a first layer that contains 30% to 70% organic polymer by weight, a second layer that contains 10% to 30% organic polymer by weight, and a catalyst. The first layer and the second layer contact each other at a textured interface.

Cathodes for metal air electrochemical cells

A shaving razor including a handle and three blade units each connected to the handle by a respective mounting structure that provides a pivotal connection of the blade unit to the mounting structure about a pivot axis that is transverse to the cutting edge, and also provides controlled up and down movement of the blade unit thereby permitting each said blade unit to conform to the contour of a surface being shaved. The handle has an index finger indent on a top surface, and thumb indent on the bottom surface, and is shaped to match the curvature of a user's hand.

Surface conforming shaving razor and handle therefor

A fluorosurfactant, preferably an anionic fluorosurfactant, can be added to the anode mixture of a zinc/air cell. A desirable surfactant is an anionic fluoroaliphaticcarboxylate. The addition of the surfactant reduces gassing and improves cell performance. The anode casing can also be treated with the surfactant solution prior to inserting the anode mixture therein. The anode casing of a zinc/air depolarized cell can also be heat treated after the casing has been formed but before anode material comprising zinc is inserted therein. The anode casing has a layer of copper on its inside surface. The process comprises heat treating the anode casing by passing a gas at a temperature between about 200&deg; C. and 700&deg; C., preferably between about 300&deg; C. and 600&deg; C. in contact therewith to form a heat treated anode casing and then cooling said heat treated anode casing to ambient temperature. The heat treated anode casing is stored away from atmospheric air until anode active material is inserted therein during cell assembly. The heat treating process significantly reduces gassing during cell discharge and storage and eliminates the need to add mercury to the anode material.

Zinc/air cell

A process for heat treating the metal sheeting forming the anode casing of a zinc/air depolarized cell before anode material comprising zinc is inserted into the anode casing. The anode casing has a layer of copper on its inside surface. The process comprises heat treating the metal sheeting forming the anode casing by passing a gas at a temperature between about 200&deg; C. and 700&deg; C., preferably between about 300&deg; C. and 600&deg; C. in contact therewith to form a heat treated sheeting and then cooling said heat treated sheeting to ambient temperature. The anode casing is stored away from atmospheric air until anode active material is inserted therein during cell assembly. The heat treating process significantly reduces gassing during cell discharge and storage. The cell's capacity and performance is improved when the cell's anode comprises particulate zinc (or zinc alloy) plated with indium, preferably between about 200 and 600 ppm indium. The need to add mercury to the anode material is reduced and can be eliminated.

A metal-air battery includes (a) an anode; (b) a cathode including a metal that reduces oxygen; (c) a housing for the anode and cathode having an air access that allows oxygen to contact the cathode; (d) a separator between the anode and the cathode; and (e) a hydrogen recombination catalyst within the housing. The hydrogen recombination catalyst can include a Pd, Pt, Ru metal or a salt thereof, and CuO.

Hydrogen recombination catalyst

A process for heat treating an anode casing of a zinc/air depolarized cell after the casing has been formed but before anode material comprising zinc is inserted therein. The anode casing has a layer of copper on its inside surface. The process comprises heat treating the anode casing by passing a gas at a temperature between about 200&deg; C. and 700&deg; C., preferably between about 300&deg; C. and 600&deg; C. in contact therewith to form a heat treated anode casing and then cooling said heat treated anode casing to ambient temperature. The heat treated anode casing is stored away from atmospheric air until anode active material is inserted therein during cell assembly. The heat treating process significantly reduces gassing during cell discharge and storage and eliminates the need to add mercury to the anode material.

An alkaline battery includes a cathode, an anode, a separator, an alkaline electrolyte, and a hydrogen recombination catalyst. The hydrogen recombination catalyst includes a hydrogen oxidizing material, such as CuO, and an activating material. The activating material includes a first activating component and a second activating component. The components of the activating material can be Pd, Pt, Ru metals or salts thereof.

A shaving razor including a handle and three blade units each connected to the handle by a respective mounting structure that provides a pivotal connection of the blade unit to the mounting structure about a pivot axis that is transverse to the cutting edge, and also provides controlled up and down movement of the blade unit thereby permitting each blade unit to conform to the contour of a surface being shaved. The handle has an index finger indent on a top surface, and thumb indent on the bottom surface, and is shaped to match the curvature of a user's hand.

Improved razors and razor blades and processes for producing razor blades or similar cutting tools with sharp and durable cutting edges, by hard-carbon coating of blades with amorphous diamond, preferably using a filtered cathodic arc plasma source. A coating of amorphous diamond having at least 40 percent sp3 carbon bonding, a hardness of at least 45 gigapascals and a modulus of at least 400 gigapascals is applied to the sharpened edge of a substrate. The substrate may be mechanically honed, and there is no interlayer between the substrate and the amorphous diamond coating. The coating imparts stiffness and rigidity to a thin blade while maintaining a high aspect ratio.

Growing community of inventors

Danbury, CT, United States of America

David L Pappas