DISCHARGE PERFORMANCE ON THE ELECTRODE OF TERNARY INTERCALATION COMPOUNDS OF GRAPHITE WITH METAL-HYDROXIDES

The graphite intercalation compounds with metal hydroxides (metal hydroxide-GICs) were used as the cathode material of an alkaline secondary battery. The performance of charge and discharge reactions on the electrode was characterized by activation energies for both reactions. The activation energy for the discharge reaction on the GIC electrode was lower than that on the conventional nickel hydroxide electrode. For a battery with a metal hydroxide-GIC electrode, it was shown that the discharge curve has a well-defined plateau and also the overvoltage was small even in the discharge under a large current. The lowering of activation energy would strongly be related with the structure of the GIC, in which nickel hydroxide was held in between conductive graphite layer planes and charge transfer occurred easily between intercalate and host graphite.