Mechanical strength of porous nickel plates containing lithium and their performance as the cathode for MCFC

To improve the mechanical properties of MCFC cathode materials, pre-lithiated porous nickel plates containing 1-5 mol% of lithium were fabricated by the tape casting method, and the microstructures, mechanical properties, and performance was examined. The microstructure and pore distribution was not changed until the lithum content reached 3 mol%. The sample containing 5 mol% of lithium had patch structure on the skeleton and a smaller volume of primary pores. XRD analysis showed that lithium-containing porous nickel plates can easily form solid solutions without any undesirable byproducts after the oxidation. Both the bending strength and Young's modulus of the porous plates increased with the increase of lithium content. The average bending strengths of the samples containing 1, 3, and 5 mol% of lithium were 1.29, 1.33, and 1.49 kgf/mm(2) which were 2.9, 3.0, and 3.4 times higher than that of pure porous nickel plate. The Young's modulus increased up to 1.35 kgf/mm in the case of the 5 mol% lithium containing sample that is 5.4 times higher than that of pure porous nickel plate. The OCV of single cells using pre-lithiated cathodes were between 1.065 and 1.067 V, and comparable cell performance was obtained for 500 h of single cell operation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.