Author:
Go Do-Young,Kim Ha Young,Jung Keeyoung,Lim Sungki
Abstract
<p>While Na/NiCl<sub>2</sub> secondary batteries offer high safety and excellent performance, their high price inhibits their commercialization. Two approaches are proposed to solve this problem: (1) automatic production by making cells of a flat plate structure and (2) lowering the price of sodium-beta-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE), a key component. In general, a thin and wide disk-type BASE for a planar Na/NiCl<sub>2</sub> battery is prepared from zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) by a vapor-phase conversion (VPC) process. In the process, Na-β″-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> powder, which is usually used as surrounding powder to supply sodium, is used once, then discarded. In this study, two methods were attempted to reduce the BASE cost fabricated by the VPC process. The first is the reuse of the surrounding powder in the VPC. The number of reuses has been up to three times. The second is that the surrounding powder is used as-is by mixing raw material powders, that is α-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>, Na<sub>2-</sub>CO<sub>3</sub>, and Li<sub>2</sub>CO<sub>3</sub>, instead of Na-β″-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> powder. This allows omission of the calcination process required for Na-β″-Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> synthesis. Furthermore, the properties of the BASE prepared by VPC with the reused surrounding powder were analyzed, and their changes were investigated.</p>
Funder
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology
Publisher
The Korean Electrochemical Society - English Journal