Study on the reduction behavior of CoOOH during the storage of nickel/metal-hydride battery

The storage of nickel/metal-hydride (Ni-MH) battery with co-precipitated cobalt hydroxide and post-added cobalt compound as the additives for pasted Ni(OH)₂ electrode is studied in this paper by using galvanostatic charge–discharge, cyclic voltammetry and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It is shown that (I) capacity loss occurs only on the battery with post-added cobalt compound during the storage; (II) CoOOH derived from co-precipitated cobalt hydroxide has a better stability than the one from post-added cobalt compound and an irreversible reduction of the latter is observed; and (III) an inactive Co + 3O(OH) is obtained from Ni(OH)₂ electrode with post-added cobalt compound after the storage and should be responsible for the property deterioration of Ni-MH battery. Thus, it is important to increase the stability of CoOOH derived from post-added cobalt compound when Ni-MH battery suffers a long-term storage.