Varta Batterie Aktiengesellschaft

Rainer Bittihn

Friedrich Woeffler

Rudolf Herr

Jean-Paul Randin

Gernot Kohler

Armin Wagner

Detlev Hoge

Dieter Sziksnus

Detley Hoge

Jean-Daniel Rosselet

Eren Yalcin

Dieter Nagele

Georg Ely

Hubert Rinke

A coupling for connecting a battery to a battery charger of a replacement station for electric road vehicles equipped with exchangeable batteries receivable upon a roller conveyor associated with the replacement station, or to a battery charger of the owner of the vehicle, includes corresponding terminal strips associated with the battery and with the battery charger having plugs and sockets for electrical connection, and optionally for connection with an air supply and a water refilling device. The plugs and sockets are suitably connected to the battery with cables and hoses. The correspondingly adjusted terminal strip arranged at the charging position in the replacement station is provided with corresponding sockets and plugs, and has additional guide pins for engaging corresponding guide openings in the battery terminal strip. These various structures are automatically connected when the battery is advanced along the roller conveyor.

Automatic coupling system for traction batteries

An electrochemical secondary element with a non-aqueous electrolyte, whose charge/discharge mechanism is predicated upon the reversible intercalation of active Li+ ions in electrode materials having an open skeletal structure. The positive electrode is essentially a lithium-manganese spinel of the type Li.sub.q M.sub.x Mn.sub.y O.sub.z which, in addition to satisfying the expressions 0&lt;x&lt;0.6 and 1.4&lt;y&lt;2.0, can also contain up to 30% of other metals such as Co, in addition to Mn. The negative electrode is based on a carbon product obtained by pyrolysis from organic compounds, and serves as the recipient substance for the Li+ ions. By limiting the Li concentration in the spinel lattice to a range in which the numerical values of the variable q lie between 0 and 1.3, a lithium-poor manganese spinel is obtained. During discharging of the preponderant portion of the secondary element's capacity, the result is that a cell potential greater than 3 volt is obtained, and high cycling stability is also manifested.

Electrochemical secondary element

In a lithium secondary cell of the intercalation type, with a positive electrode which includes a lithiated transition metal oxide Li.sub.x M.sub.y O.sub.2, wherein 0.5.ltoreq.x/y.ltoreq.1.0 and M is a metal from Groups VIIb and VIIIb (preferably Co, Ni, Mn), and with a negative electrode formed of a carbon product with disordered crystalline structure produced from organic materials by delayed coking, both electrodes are uncharged in the initial assembly state, but the negative electrode is doped with lithium through prelithiation in an amount which is irreversibly consumed in the formation of ion conductive surface layers. This permits a loss-free deintercalation of any subsequently introduced lithium so that the cell exhibits, from its inception, a largely stable capacity during cyclic charge/discharge operation.

An aluminum substrate, with its natural oxide film intact, is made suitable for the electrochemical deposition polymerization of the electrode-active organic material, and for further use as an electrolyte holder and a charge eliminator, by providing the aluminum substrate with an electron-conducting coating of Au, Pt, Ni, Cr, Cr-Ni or C. In blank form, following pickling in an alkali, the aluminum substrate can either directly receive the deposit, or can be prepared for this purpose by electrochemical coating with a corrosion-resistant heavy metal. The aluminum can be used in the form of a netting or expanded metal so as to achieve a particularly firm connection between the metal and the polymer, and so that the resulting mesh cavities can be used to incorporate the amount of electrolyte which is necessary for charging of the polymer electrode. This allows the use of a thinner separator as the electrolyte reservoir, improving the power density of the cell.

Galvanic cell with a polymer electrode

A polymer electrode having a thickness which is distributed among several superimposed thin film layers exhibits significantly higher area-specific capacity and current-carrying capacity. This layered arrangement is even more favorable when the thin layers are perforated. These measures are especially effective when the secondary element is operated with high currents.

Electrochemical secondary element with at least one polymer electrode

In the electropolymerization of monomers, especially pyrrole, thiophene or furan, conducting polymer films with high surface-specific capacity and favorable kinetics can be deposited for use as electrode materials in galvanic storage batteries, despite their relatively large film thickness, by impressing the selected deposition primary current i.sub.1 with at least one short current impulse having a magnitude i.sub.2 which is several times that of the primary current. This current impulse also sharply increases the deposition potential .eta..sub.1 corresponding to the primary current i.sub.1.

Process for the production of electrically conducting organic polymer

In a galvanic solid cell, for example of the Na/SbCl.sub.3 systems, the cathode space is occupied by a self-supporting porous sinter framework of solid electrolyte material, in whose pores the active cathode material is retained. A porous structure can be united with the massive solid electrolyte-separator into a unitary sinter composite of high ion conductivity, to which, if desired, there can also be joined on the anode side a porous sinter framework for receiving the alkali metal. The meltable active electrode materials are introduced by immersion into the porous portions of the sinter composite. The porous solid electrolyte structure can also be used advantageously as the separator system for cells with molten liquid electrodes, e.g. of the Na/S high temperature cell type.

Galvanic element having a porous solid-electrolyte sinter framework

A galvanic cell with solid electrolyte, which is dischargeable at room temperature and whose positive electrode consists of the metals Sb, Bi, or of the oxides or chalcogenides of these metals, or of mixtures of members of the respective groups, bases its current productive processes upon the formation of a reversible inter-metallic combination between the Sb or Bi and the alkali metal of the negative electrode. The reaction equations are:

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Idstein, Germany

Rainer Bittihn