A study on AgCuO2 as ultra fast charging cathode material for alkaline secondary battery

AgCuO2 as ultra fast charging cathode material for alkaline secondary batteries is reported in the present paper. The structural characterization shows that the AgCuO2 material is composed of many one-dimension linear crystals arranged in a certain sequence. The experimental results show that the AgCuO2 electrodes have good electrochemical characteristics at ultra fast charging-discharging speed from 5000 mA g(-1) to 50,000 mA g(-1). The super high speed ability of charge/discharge makes the charge time of the electrode shorter than 29s. Cyclic voltammetric (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests reveal that the charge/discharge process is not the single electron transfer for Cu(III) but the fast dual electron transfer for Ag(II) and Cu(III). The characteristics of high cycling capacity and fast charging for AgCuO2 not only increase the specific capacity of batteries considerably but also make it possible to charge the future electric cars instantaneously as fast as refueling the fuel vehicles. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.