Zinc-air primary batteries

Primary zinc-air batteries based upon the use of plastic cell trays in a prismatic, stackable configuration, which overcomes the capacity limitation of zinc-air button cells and the rate limitations of currently available industrial zinc-air batteries, were developed. A series of experiments was conducted on subscale prototype cells to test the elements of the design basis and to optimize electrode formulations. The cell designs were finalized based on the experimental work, and cells were built and tested both as individual cells and as five-cell batteries. The prismatic cells and batteries built and tested performed well with respect to the program goals. Specific energies in access of 440 Wh/kg were achieved with the 200-Ah cell design