Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Yasuhiko Itoh

Nobuyuki Higashiyama

Mamoru Kimoto

Takeshi Ogasawara

Mutsumi Yano

Takuya Hashimoto

Atsushi Fukui

Koji Nishio

Teruhiko Imoto

Mitsunori Tokuda

Kikuko Kato

Yoshifumi Magari

Masutaka Ouchi

Shin Fujitani

Masahisa Fujimoto

Yasuo Miyake

Ikuo Yonezu

Hidenobu Wakita

Hiroshi Nakamura

Osamu Sakai

Koichi Nishimura

Hiroaki Ikeda

Osamu Tajima

Yusuke Fujita

Masato Nishioka

Kazuki Hamasaki

Yoshihiro Masuda

An apparatus includes a proton-conducting electrolyte membrane, an anode, a cathode, a first flow path which is disposed on the anode and through which an anode fluid containing hydrogen as a constituent element flows, a second flow path which is disposed on the cathode and through which hydrogen flows, a voltage applicator, a detector which detects a hydrogen cross leak amount passing through the membrane, where the detector detects the hydrogen cross leak amount from, a natural potential of one electrode of the cathode and the anode after forming a state where hydrogen is present at the one electrode and hydrogen is not present at the other electrode of the cathode and the anode, or a current flowing between the anode and the cathode when the voltage is applied from the voltage applicator in a state where the first flow path and the second flow path are both sealed off.

Electrochemical hydrogen compression apparatus

A non-sintered nickel electrode for an alkaline storage battery, characterized in that nickel hydroxide particles as active material particles thereof contain a cobalt having a valence of 3 to 3.2 as a solid solution element. The nickel electrode has excellent charging capability.

Non-sintered nickel electrode for alkaline storage battery

The nickel-metal hydride storage battery of this invention includes a nonsintered nickel electrode using, as a positive electrode active material, nickel hydroxide including, as a solid-solution element, at least one element Q selected from the group consisting of Mn, Al, Y, Yb and Co; and a pasted hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode using, as a negative electrode active material, a hydrogen-absorbing alloy represented by a composition formula, Ti V Ni M , in which a&plus;b&plus;c&equals;100; 15&lE;a&lE;45; 35&lE;b&lE;75; 5&lE;c&lE;25; 0<d&lE;7; and M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Cr, Mn, Mo, Nb, Ta, W, La, Ce, Y, Mm, Co, Fe, Cu, Si, Al, B, Zr and Hf, and the ratio in capacity between the nonsintered nickel electrode and the pasted hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode is 1:1.1 through 1:1.8. As a result, the invention provides a nickel-metal hydride storage battery having large battery capacity and a long cycle life.

Nickel-metal hydride storage battery

Negative electrode for lithium secondary battery

The negative electrode of this invention includes, as a negative electrode active material, substantially amorphous aluminum alloy in the form of a powder with an average particle size of 50 &mgr;m or less represented by a composition formula, Al M , in which M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of La, Y, Yb, Ce, Gd, Nd, Sm, Pr, Er, Ni, Co, Cu and Fe; and 1&lE;x&lE;20. Owing to this negative electrode, a lithium secondary battery having large discharge capacity and exhibiting very good charge-discharge cycle performance can be realized.

A positive active material for sealed alkaline storage batteries is obtainable by subjecting &bgr;-nickel hydroxide, together with at least one additive selected from yttrium, gadolinium, erbium and ytterbium, and oxides, hydroxides, fluorides and chlorides thereof, to an oxidation treatment with an oxidizing agent in an aqueous alkaline solution. The positive active material contains nickel with a valence number in a range from 2.1 to 3.4.

Positive active material for use in sealed alkaline storage batteries

In a positive electrode active material for alkaline storage batteries according to the present invention, a surface of a nickel hydroxide is coated with a mixed crystal material of at least one type of element selected from aluminum Al, manganese Mn, iron Fe, yttrium Y, ytterbium Yb, erbium Er, and gadolinium Gd and cobalt, the valence of nickel in the nickel hydroxide is in the range of 2.0 to 2.3, and the valence of cobalt in the mixed crystal material exceeds 3.0. The positive electrode active material for alkaline storage batteries is used for a positive electrode for alkaline storage batteries, and the positive electrode for alkaline storage batteries is further used for an alkaline storage battery.

Positive electrode active material for alkaline storage batteries, positive electrode for alkaline storage batteries, and alkaline storage battery

In a lithium secondary battery of this invention, the negative electrode uses, as an active material, an alloy including an A phase of a first intermetallic compound (A), and a B phase of a second intermetallic compound (B) having the same constituent elements as and a different composition from the first intermetallic compound (A) and/or a C phase consisting of one of the constituent elements of the first intermetallic compound (A), and at least one of the A phase, the B phase and the C phase is capable of electrochemically absorbing and discharging lithium ions. Thus, the lithium secondary battery can exhibit good charge-discharge cycle performance.

Lithium secondary battery

The sealed alkaline storage battery of this invention includes a nonsintered nickel positive electrode using, as an active material, manganese-containing &agr;-nickel hydroxide including, as a solid-solution element, 15 through 50 wt % of manganese on the basis of a total amount of nickel and manganese; a negative electrode; and an alkaline electrolyte including 0.55 through 0.80 g of water per gram of the manganese-containing &agr;-nickel hydroxide. In this manner, the invention provides an alkaline storage battery exhibiting high positive electrode active material utilization for a large number of charge-discharge cycles.

Sealed alkaline storage battery with a manganese containing NiOH electrode

A hydrogen storage alloy electrode containing, as a principal active material, a powder of hydrogen storage alloy having a CaCu crystal structure and represented by the formula MmNi Co Mn M where M is at least one element selected from aluminum (Al) and copper (Cu), x is between 3.0 and 5.2, y is between 0 and 1.2, z is between 0.1 and 0.9, w is between 0.1 and 0.9, and the sum of x, y, z and w is between 4.4 and 5.4. The hydrogen storage alloy powder particles have a surface region and a bulk region enclosed within the surface region and have a higher nickel content in the surface region than in the bulk region. The hydrogen storage alloy electrode further contains an oxide and/or hydroxide of at least one rare-earth element selected from ytterbium (Yb), samarium (Sm), erbium (Er) and gadolinium (Gd).

Hydrogen storage alloy electrode and method for manufacture thereof

In a pasted hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode of this invention, an active material layer made from a mixture of a hydrogen-absorbing alloy powder, a composite particle powder including carbon particles and a rare earth compound for partially coating surfaces of the carbon particles, and a binder is formed on a current collector. When this pasted hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode is used in an alkaline storage battery, the alkaline storage battery can attain small increase of the internal pressure during charge, large discharge capacity in high rate discharge and good charge-discharge cycle performance.

Pasted hydrogen-absorbing alloy electrode for alkaline storage battery

A fuel cell power system comprises a fuel conditioning apparatus for converting hydrocarbon fuels to a hydrogen-rich gas, and a fuel cell stack for converting fuel gas to electric power, said fuel cell stack including an anode gas chamber connected at its inlet to the fuel conditioning apparatus through a fuel gas feed pipe line, a cathode gas chamber connected to a process air feeding means, and a cooling gas chamber connected at its both ends to a cooling medium circulating line provided with a heat exchanger and a blower, characterized in that said fuel gas feed pipe line and cooling medium circulating line are connected one another through a pipe line provided with a valve to supply said hydrogen-rich gas from said fuel gas feed pipe line to said cooling medium circulating line or vice versa.

Growing community of inventors

Yawata, Japan

Yasuhiko Itoh