Stress test evaluation of cobalt-enhanced nickel plaque electrodes

The addition of cobalt to the surface of aerospace-quality sintered nickel plaque was observed to improve plate performance during a 5000 cycle stress test. A two-level, four-factor full factorial design matrix was established to compare the performance of cobalt-enhanced nickel plates with standard aerospace quality nickel plates during testing. The three other factors were loading level, current density during electrochemical impregnation and the concentration of KOH electrolyte. Regression analysis after 4000 cycles indicates that nickel plates fabricated from cobalt-enhanced plaque using a low current density during the electrochemical impregnation step provides the best performance during high rate charge/discharge applications.