USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Joseph F McCartney

William H Shipman

Forrest R Goodson

Edwin H Wrench

Leopold J Johnson

Thomas E Jones

Raymond A Rowe

Charles R Gundersen

Jay C Hicks

A seawater battery has been provided which includes an anode and a cathode, he anode being a flexible sheet of anode material and the cathode being a flexible foil of cathode material. An insulative flexible film joins one side of the cathode foil to one side of the anode sheet so as to form a flexible bilaminar composite. A device is operatively associated with the bilaminar composite for providing it positive buoyancy in seawater, and a ballast device is connected to a bottom edge of the bilaminar composite. An electrical lead is connected to the anode sheet and an electrical lead is connected to the cathode foil at a common edge of the bilaminar composite and in close proximity to one another. The bilaminar composite is flexed to a compacted condition, and a device is provided for releaseably retaining the bilaminar composite in the compacted flexed condition. With this arrangement the battery can be placed in seawater and when the retaining device is released the bilaminar composite will unflex and electrical current will be produced across the electrical leads.

Bilaminar seawater battery

A battery cell and battery are disclosed in which a cathode layer and an de layer are separated by a nonconducting ion permeable membrane and are sandwiched between a pair of conducting polymer layers. The conducting polymer layers and the ion permeable membrane from two distinct compartments in which the cathode and anode of the cell, respectively are positioned. A liquid electrolyte is sealed in each compartment. The ion permeable membrane allows passage through it of selected ions.

Polymer packaged cell in a sack

A lithium, thionyl chloride battery is provided with an electrolyte which kes it safe under a reverse voltage condition. The electrolyte is niobium pentachloride which is dissolved in the thionyl chloride.

Lithium-thionyl chloride battery with niobium pentachloride electrolyte

A submersible energy storage apparatus for an electrical power source is vided which includes an electrolysis unit feed water gas collection assembly and a fuel cell. The electrolysis unit feed water gas collection assembly includes a hydrogen container and an oxygen container wherein each container has a gas outlet and is capable of containing feed water as well as hydrogen and oxygen gases respectively. An electrolysis cell is provided which has a hydrogen outlet, an oxygen outlet and a feed water inlet. The hydrogen outlet is located in the hydrogen container, the oxygen outlet is located in the oxygen container, and the feed water inlet is located in one of the containers. Each of the containers has an opening to the submersible environment so as to be pressure responsive thereto. A barrier device is provided in association with the opening in each container for isolating the feed water in the container from water in the submersible environment. The fuel cell is operatively connected to the hydrogen and oxygen containers, and the electrical power source is operatively connected to the electrolysis cell. With this arrangement the electrolysis cell is capable of utilizing power from the power source during low electrical energy demand, and the fuel cell is capable of utilizing the hydrogen and oxygen gases for generating electricity during high demand periods.

Submersible energy storage apparatus

An improvement is provided for a battery which has an anode and a cathode, pair of spaced apart concentric tubes, a piston mounted in the inner tube, an electrolyte disposed in the inner tube between one side of the piston and one end of the inner tube, and a device disposed in the inner tube between the other side of the piston and the other end of the inner tube for biasing the piston toward the one end of the inner tube. The improvement includes the cathode being porous and being mounted in the annular space, and an electrolyte which substantially completely fills the pores of the cathode. The volume of the electrolyte within the porous cathode is substantially only sufficient for stoichiometry. A passageway is provided for communicating the electrolyte side of the inner tube with the annular space. The volume of the electrolyte within the inner tube is substantially only sufficient for filling the voids left within the annular space as the products react. With this arrangement the anode of the battery will be substantially completely reacted regardless of the position of the battery, thus resulting in a higher energy density.

Position insensitive battery

A battery apparatus is provided which includes a plurality of modules which re mounted end-to-end in a stacked pile configuration. Each module contains a plurality of bipolar electrodes. One end of each module has a flexible bladder for storing an electrolyte. The bladders in a collapsed condition provide spacing between the modules for cooling. Each module has a passageway for communicating electrolyte from the bladder to the bipolar electrodes. A device seals each passageway from the respective bladder in one mode of operation and is actuated by pressure on the bladder to open the passageway in another mode of operation. With this arrangement pressure on the bladders will distribute electrolyte into each module and the bladders will collapse to provide a cooling space between the modules.

Water cooled bipolar battery apparatus

A safe high energy density battery which includes a lithium anode, a cathte of bromine, and an electrolyte of tetrabutylammonium bromine.

Safe high energy density battery

An apparatus is capable of recovering signals from N sites, N.gtoreq.2, distributed along a single coaxial cable. This multiplexing technique allows the separation of signals from many transducers on one line. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) is used, with variable resistive elements distributed along the cable. TDR is used to detect discontinuities in the impedance of the cable as well as their specific location along the cable. The magnitude of these discontinuities is modulated by an impedance that is proportional to the applied signal. An excellent way of obtaining this kind of variable impendance along the line is to bias a field effect transistor (FET) so that it functions as a variable resistor. For a large number of signals to be multiplexed onto a coaxial cable, an FET is placed at each of the N signal sources. The coaxial cable has a characteristic impedance of Z.sub.o and the FET's are evenly spaced at a distance l. Each of the FET's produces a discontinuity on the cable that can be detected by using time domain reflectometry. Microphones may also be used instead of the FET's.

Range division multiplexing

A submersible battery apparatus is set forth which has improved life and er performance capabilities. The apparatus includes a battery which has top and bottom casing ends with one of tha battery casing ends having an aperture. A housing is provided which also has top and bottom ends. The battery is mounted in the housing with the aperture in the battery casing 10 directed downwardly and facing the bottom end of the housing. The battery contains an electrolyte, and the housing contains a liquid which has a higher specific gravity than the electrolyte and is non-reactive therewith. The housing is pressure compensated so that the power of the battery is increased with increased submergence and yet gases generated by the battery are retained within the battery casing so that they will not corrode the housing and its associated terminals.

Submersible battery apparatus

A super high energy density battery which includes a lithium anode, a catyte of liquid bromine trifluoride, and an electrolyte of antimony pentafluoride.

Growing community of inventors

Solana Beach, CA, United States of America

Joseph F McCartney