Effect of rare earth oxide additives on the performance of NiMH batteries

Abstract

To date, we have performed research on nickel–metal hydride (NiMH) batteries used in many applications and have found that addition of rare earth oxides to the nickel electrode and the hydrogen-storage alloy (MH) electrode improves battery performance significantly. Because heavy rare earth oxides of such as Er, Tm, Yb and Lu have remarkable properties that shift the oxygen evolution overpotentials of nickel electrodes to more noble potentials, it is possible to improve high-temperature charge efficiency of nickel–metal hydride secondary batteries by adding them to nickel electrodes. Furthermore, addition of heavy rare earth oxides to MH electrodes depresses an acceleration of the alloy corrosion and improves service life of the battery at high temperatures. Accordingly, addition of heavy rare earth oxides is effective for NiMH batteries used in high-temperature applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid vehicles (HEVs) and rapid charge devices. In this study, we discussed how the addition of heavy rare earth oxides affects NiMH battery characteristics.