Electrochemical generator operating device with a zinc negative electrode

DETAILED DESCRIPTION One of the aims of this invention is specifically to make a zinc recharging device for negative electrodes that can be used in an electrochemical generator constituting, if necessary, the recharging element itself and which make it possible to recharge the zinc electrode during a large number of charge and discharge cycles without causing the formation of dendrites that produce internal short circuits or changes in the shape of the electrodes.
For this purpose, the invention proposes an electrochemical generator operating device with a zince negative electrode and with alkaline electrolyte charged with zinc salts in which the zinc electrode is of the type known as a scattered electrode and consisting of a multiplicity of approximately spherical-shaped particles comprising a core made of a material resistant to the electrochemical attack and which is wholly or partially coated with a conductive coating, and whose density is greater than that of the electrolyte, characterized in that these particles come into contact by sedimentation with the negative upper face of a flat bipolar current collector when the fluid consisting of the alkaline electrolyte and said particles is not in circulation and are charged with zinc perferably at the collector, said fluid being able to be put in circulation and to be guided into a multiplicity of approximately horizontal parallel pipes with a rectangular section whose lower face consists of said upper face of the flat collector, whose upper face consists of a separator porous to the electrolyte opposing the direct contact of said particles with the positive electrode of the generator, and whose lateral faces are made of an inert material resistant to the alkaline medium, said circulating of the fluid being performed intermittently both during the recharge and discharge phases and according to a periodic off-on cycle characterized in that the off time is greater than the on time.
According to a characteristic of the invention, the ratio of the off time and the on time during the discharge phase is less than the same ratio during the recharge phase; the quotient between these two ratios is between 1