Effect of Morphology and Size of Nickel Particles on Electrochemical Performance of Sodium Metal Chloride Rechargeable Battery

Because of the limitation of lithium resources, sodium-based rechargeable batteries started to emerge as potential candidates for medium and large-scale stationary energy storage system (ESS) again. Na-S batteries have been used for large-scale stationary ESS but intrinsically have a risk for explosion. Sodium metal chloride batteries based on Na-NiCl₂ chemistry, however, are consisted of safer electrode configuration with nickel, NaCl and NaAlCl₄ as cathode ingredients than the Na-S batteries. The Na-NiCl₂ batteries offer many attractive properties such as high cell voltage, high theoretical specific energy, and broad range in operating temperature. The nickel chloride electrode plays an important role in the cell performance. A qualitative and quantitative understanding of the electrochemical and morphological properties of NiCl₂, therefore, is very important. This paper will describe effect of morphology and size of nickel particles on electrochemical performance of the sodium metal chloride batteries including synthesized nickel powders having very high porosity.