Fabrication of VB2/Air Cells for Electrochemical Testing

A technique to investigate the properties and performance of new multi-electron metal/air battery systems is proposed and presented. A method for synthesizing nanoscopic VB₂ is presented as well as step-by-step procedure for applying a zirconium oxide coating to the VB₂ particles for stabilization upon discharge. The process for disassembling existing zinc/air cells is shown, in addition construction of the new working electrode to replace the conventional zinc/air cell anode with a the nanoscopic VB₂ anode. Finally, discharge of the completed VB₂/air battery is reported. We show that using the zinc/air cell as a test bed is useful to provide a consistent configuration to study the performance of the high-energy high capacity nanoscopic VB₂ anode.