A water-activated cuprous bromide battery

In this work a water-activated copper(I) bromide battery was developed and investigated. CuBr combined with sulphur as the reactive cathode material was compared with the CuCl-sulphur combination, the anode being in both cases a magnesium alloy. Battery characteristics were tested at room temperature and in an atmosphere simulation chamber because water-activated batteries are mostly used in meteorological radiosondes. Heat evolution was studied calorimetrically, and the potentials of the single electrodes were measured in half-cell experiments. The practical voltages remained significantly lower than the theoretical ones. The low actual voltages of the batteries were found to be caused by the potential loss at the magnesium anode. The heat evolution power of the CuBr battery was approximately 20% lower than the power of the CuCl battery as a result of bromide ions that catalyse the exothermic corrosion reaction of magnesium less than chloride ions. The CuBr battery is environmentally preferable to the CuCl battery because the reaction that produces harmful Cu2+ ions does not progress with CuBr. The problem when using CuBr is the slow activation, which can be accelerated by adding soluble salts to increase the conductivity of the electrolyte.