P-139 Nickel-Iron Battery (Edison Battery)

While working on one of my new projects, the DataVault, I realised that many current day battery technologies are sorely lacking. The objective of this project was to design a repository for data that would last for 100 years. Most rechabatteries have a lifespan of 5 years, maybe a little more. I discovered one type of atomic battery that can produce a small current for 20 years, but this is still just one-fifth of what I need (Actually, the power rating of atomic batteries is a “negative exponential”, which means the power output is not uniform. The battery will likely continue to output current after 20 years, it will just become steadily less).

The simplest battery system that I could use for the DataVault project would be a lead acid battery connected to some kind of solar panel, or other current source.

The problem is that lead acid batteries:

• are toxic,
• are harmful to the environment,
• have a short lifespan,
• cannot be discharged more than 40% of their capacity (for a standard automotive battery)
• are quite susceptable to over-charging or unreliable charging,
• can only be charged and discharged a relatively small number of times (since the plates of the battery actually physically disolve in the electrolyte during use),
• and are also susceptible to cold conditions, causing reduced performance (requiring lead acid batters to have a “cold cranking amps” rating, to indicate their performance under these conditions).

However, the great Thomas Edision, one of history’s finest inventors, created an alternative to this battery in 1901, calling it the “Nickel-Iron” battery, or the Edision battey.

Nickel-Iron Batteries:

• Can last up to 100 years ,
• Can be recharged many times, (Since the electrolyte is an alkaline, not an acid, and the plates do not physically dissolve during use)
• can be discharged to 95% of their capacity,
• are far less toxic and harmful to the environment,
• suffer no significant reduction in performance in cold conditions,
• and are much more tolerant to poor charging conditions (in solar power applications, a nickel-iron battery bank may not even need a charge controller!)

I intend, therefore, to create a concept prototype of a Nickel-Iron Battery, and evaluate it for use in this and other projects. The best description of how to make one is here. Most of the ingredients are very easy to get, with the exception of the iron and nickel mesh screening. I cannot find any sources of either of these that are not restricted to large, commercial orders. However, I believe you can use copper mesh (much easier to obtain) for the Iron electrode, and it is also possible to use nickel-plated mesh instead of pure nickel mesh for the nickel electrode (Due to the fact that the nickel electrode will not be physically broken down during use, unlike a lead acid battery).  So, I could electroplate some copper mesh with nickel, and use that.