Batteries (3% of primary nickel use)
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Nickel is extensively used in battery systems. Several systems rely upon a nickel-containing electrolyte as
the active energy storage and release medium, sometimes known as the "active mass". Examples are
Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel-Iron and Nickel-Zinc. All can be used to construct commercial rechargeable
batteries.
The active mass is a nickel chemical -- usually based on nickel hydroxide. This can be made by battery manufacturers who buy and dissolve nickel under carefully controlled conditions to produce the active mass which is then put together with the electrodes to form the battery. Other battery manufacturers buy the active mass from specialist chemical producers. Any nickel that arises during manufacturing of the active mass can usually be recycled by dissolving it back into the active mass production process.
Nickel is also a key part of the Nickel-Metal Hydride rechargeable battery systems for which the active mass is produced by melting the nickel and other metal components together. Again any nickel which arises during the battery manufacture can be remelted back into active mass.
Apart from being part of the active mass, nickel is also used extensively in the battery industry to produce electrodes -- especially those electrodes that are designed to be porous so that the volume of active mass in contact with the electrode can be maximized.
Porous electrodes are often made by slurrying and sintering special nickel powders under closely controlled conditions. Any nickel arising from this process can either be returned as feed to the slurry process or dissolved to form the active mass.
An alternative method of producing porous electrodes is to plate nickel onto a porous substrate (foam or woven fibres) and then burn off the substrate to leave a fine porous nickel structure. The production process is a plating process so has the same features as other plating processes -- i.e., there is a strong preference for the use of special primary nickel forms.
Scrap nickel foam or fibres can be used for dissolution into active mass or can be compacted and sold as nickel feed into steelmaking, either directly or as part of a stainless steel scrap blend.
Nickel-plated steel strip is used to make certain components in battery manufacture -- primary (i.e., single use) batteries as well as rechargeable batteries. Components include cans for containing the battery and connection tabs for carrying the current to the electrodes. Nickel plating is used to give these components corrosion resistance to match the expected life of the rest of the battery.
In some older forms of battery, notably nickel-iron batteries, the electrode is made from nickel plated steel strip into which "pockets" are punched to hold the active mass -- hence the name "pocket plate batteries".
Nickel-plated steel strip is made in specialist plating facilities. Nickel which arises at these plants is
either sold as scrap to merchants supplying the stainless steel industry (nickel-coated iron) or is sold as
dried, crystallized plating tank residue to merchants supplying nickel smelters.
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