Exploring Titanium Material for Developing High Energy/High Power Battery for Strategic Defense Applications

Commercial Pure (CP) grade-2 titanium is a choice material for the construction of Silver Oxide Zinc reserve-battery components like battery containers, cell casings, electrolyte bladder housings, etc. The above-said components are either not directly exposed to electrolyte or have limited duration exposure, e.g., the cell-case is filled with electrolyte just before operational use, by transferring the stored electrolyte from the electrolyte tanks, using pressurized gas. There is a need to widen the application CP grade-2 titanium material for the construction of electrolyte tank-reservoir in reserve batteries, where long storage requirement exists. Therefore, a study was undertaken on the corrosion behavior of CP grade-2 titanium material, with the known concentration of Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), as used in reserve battery applications. The samples for the conduct of the experiment were carefully prepared by TIG welding procedure. Material characterization studies were undertaken by macro and microstructural analysis using optical microscope (OM), phase analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Further, different corrosion studies like immersion test, salt spray test, potentiodynamic polarization studies, and surface morphology studies were undertaken. The results of all the above studies revealed that CP grade-2 titanium material with weld joints if prepared with the standardized procedure, can be effectively used in the construction of electrolyte tanks for Silver Oxide Zinc based Reserve Batteries for meeting strategic defense applications.