5.29.2016

Noble metal cathode battery open source invention patent. Iridiumosmium gold superbattery

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**Edit:  It seems as though I am wrong here, if you have a positive electrode metal like Gold at 1.6 volts and a negative one like aluminum at negative 1.6 volts, they don't add together to give 3.4 volts, rather they give only roughly 1.6 volts from the aluminum.  It seems like you cannot "crossover" from negative territory to positive territory and add the volts.  However the noble metal cathode likely still will be usefull in these negative electrode potential anode batteries because it is harder to oxidize while charging so the batteries will likely have a longer lifetime of charge cycles**


I have been thinking and experimenting with what I call a "noble metal battery" for a few months now.  This battery, while useful (currently I get 1.2 v with copper anode iridium cathode hcl electrolyte) is actually designed on a faulty premise.  I believed that the only pure metals that could be recharged had a positive electrode potential.  That is actually false.  The limiting factor on recharging is the reduction of the electrolyte.  So if your electrolyte is very hard to reduce, you can use metals with negative electrode potential.  In order to get lithium to recharge they use lithium hexafluorophosphate which is the salt of what is basically a superacid.  So just as long as your electrolyte is more difficult to reduce than your anode, you can use negative electrode potential anodes like lithium, magnesium, aluminum etc and they can be recharged.

So I am now modifying my design to be any noble metal(s) as the cathode and any metal(s) as an anode.  Iridium for example according to my tests seems to have an electrode potential of roughly 1.8 volts.  So coupled for instance with lithium the battery would produce roughly 4.8 volts. Aluminum iridium would give up to 3.4 volts.  To use a metal with a negative electrode potential the electrolyte needs to be non acidic otherwise the electrode potential of H+ being zero would oxidize the anode.  So salts of strong acids need to be used which is basically strong acids neutralized by the same (or different) element that makes the anode material.  For example lithium hexafluorophosphate electrolyte would be used with a lithium anode and the cathode could be any noble metal.  I am terming noble metals as any metal that has a positive electrode potential.  The best seem to be gold, ruthenium, iridium and osmium all giving around 1.6 to 1.8 volts roughly whereas a standard cathode of copper or carbon gives roughly 0.6 volts, but copper and carbon as cathodes would also fall under this invention since they have positive electrode potentials, although its hard to test carbon's electrode potential.

In conclusion the noble metal battery is any battery that uses noble metal(s) as a cathode.  This can be done for many reasons but especially to either achieve a greater voltage than normally can be achieved, or to increase the charge cycle lifetime.  Salts can be used as the electrolyte (aqueous or non aqueous), acids, or bases or combinations for the electrolyte.  Cells can be isolated like in a Daniel cell or with a membrane or combined in the same electrolyte.

In order to make up for the inevitable loss of surface area of the cathode using expensive metals rather than cheap carbon, oxidizer can be added to the cathode and/or electrolyte.  Examples include air, oxygen, hydrogen peroxide, etc.  Any oxidizer will work.  Air/oxygen is nice because you can depressurize or degass the solution or stop pumping the gases and the oxidation stops.

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