Influences of Various Electrolytes on the Low-Temperature Characteristics of Ni-MH Secondary Battery

The Ni-MH batteries for HEV and industry are normally placed in outdoor, consequently causing an too weak discharge power problem due to a cold weather specially in winter time. In order to improve the low temperature performances of the Ni-MH battery for HEV and industrial uses, it has been investigated the low temperature discharge characteristics of Ni-MH battery with various electrolytes at . The summary of experimental results are as follows. The low temperature characteristics depended strongly on the characteristics of electrolytes. When the concentration of the electrolytes were too high or too low the low temperature performance was poor. The best electrolyte was composed of KOH 6.2M+LiOH 1.2M. An addition of RbOH or CsOH to electrolyte improved the low temperature performance. The best total concentration of electrolyte composed of KOH, NaOH and LiOH was about 7M.