Nickel-zinc batteries make use of alkaline electrolytes and rely on hydroxide as main charge carrier. Thus, they offer high power-densities and long cycle life. Research on nickel-zinc batteries has paused due to low practical capacities.
Chargers for nickel–zinc batteries must be capable of charging a battery with a fully charged voltage of 1.85 V per cell, higher than the 1.4 V of NiMH. NiZn technology is well suited for fast recharge cycling, as optimum charge rates of C or C/2 are preferred.
There are three kinds of nickel-based batteries namely the nickel-cadmium (NiCd) battery, the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery and the nickel-zinc (NiZn) battery. The NiCd technology uses cadmium hydroxide, the NiMH uses a metal alloy and the NiZn uses zinc hydroxide.
Nickel–zinc batteries perform well in high-drain applications, and may have the potential to replace lead–acid batteries because of their higher energy-to-mass ratio and higher power-to-mass ratio – as little as 25% of the mass for the same power.
Nickel–zinc has been invented in 1899 and produced commercially from 1920. The positive electrode also uses the same material, and for the anode electrode, a pasting of zinc oxide is used. Due to the high cell voltage, the energy density is about double of the nickel–cadmium and nickel–iron-based batteries. At the positive electrode,
1. High power density: Ni-Zn batteries have twice the power density of lead-acid batteries. For the same level of backup power, Ni-Zn is about half the size and half the weight. “Ni-Zn batteries are specifically designed to discharge the energy very rapidly in the battery.
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Nickel–zinc cells have an open circuit voltage of 1.85 volts when fully charged, and a nominal voltage of 1.65 V. This makes Ni–Zn particularly suitable for electronic products that require the 1.5 V of alkaline primary cells rather than the 1.2 V of most rechargeable cells (most circuits tolerate the slightly higher voltage), and will not function correctly beyond, typically, the endpoint voltage of an alkaline cell. The output voltage of a 1.2 V rechargeable cell will drop to this point …