JP2012132083A - Metallic porous body having high corrosion resistance, and method for manufacturing therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a metallic porous body excellent in an electrolytic resistance and a corrosion resistance suitable to a battery, such as lithium-ion battery, a capacitor and a power collection body for a fuel cell.SOLUTION: The metallic porous body is composed of an alloy containing at least a nickel and a tin. Such metallic porous body is obtained with a method for manufacturing the metallic porous body, composed of the alloy containing at least the nickel and the tin, the method having a step of coating the nickel porous body with a metal containing the tin at least, and a step of diffusing the tin into the nickel porous body by performing a heat-treatment following the former step.

Description

  The present invention relates to a porous metal body used for a current collector of a battery such as a lithium ion battery, a capacitor, or a fuel cell.

  In a lithium ion battery, a metal foil such as an aluminum foil is generally used as a current collector (support) to which a positive electrode material or a negative electrode material is attached. However, the metal foil has a two-dimensional structure and is inferior to the porous body in terms of loading of active material and packing density. In other words, since the metal foil cannot be held so as to enclose the active material, the expansion and shrinkage of the active material cannot be suppressed, and the lifetime is not provided unless the filling amount is reduced. Further, since the distance between the current collector and the active material becomes long, the utilization factor of the active material at a position away from the current collector is small and the capacity density is also small. Moreover, although metal foil is used in the shape of a porous body such as punching metal, screen, and extended metal, it is also a substantially two-dimensional structure, and a significant increase in capacity density cannot be expected.

Many proposals have been made to use a current collector in the form of a three-dimensional porous body such as a foam or a nonwoven fabric for the purpose of high output, high capacity, long life, and the like (Patent Documents 1 to 4). reference).
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a three-dimensional network porous body whose surface is made of aluminum, an alloy, or stainless steel as a positive electrode current collector. In Patent Document 2, an electrode mixture in which a porous polymer is uniformly provided on the active material layer and the active material surface and a current collector such as aluminum, copper, zinc, or iron, or a conductive material such as polypyrrole or polyaniline. It is disclosed that an electrode is formed by integrating a three-dimensional porous body made of a conductive polymer or a mixture thereof.

  In Patent Literature 3, an electrode active material thin film layer is formed on a porous current collector made of a simple substance or alloy of aluminum, tantalum, niobium, titanium, hafnium, zirconium, zinc, tungsten, bismuth, antimony, or stainless steel. An electrode is disclosed. Patent Document 4 discloses using foamed aluminum, foamed nickel, or the like as the positive electrode current collector.

  By the way, in order to increase the output and capacity of the secondary battery as a whole, it is desired that the current collector adopts a three-dimensional structure having a higher porosity than the two-dimensional structure. In particular, the positive electrode current collector is easily oxidized by the electrolyte under a high charge / discharge voltage, so that oxidation resistance and electrolyte resistance are also required.

  Generally, a three-dimensional structure made of metal with a high porosity (hereinafter referred to as “metal porous body”) is made by conducting a conductive treatment on a resin porous body having no electrical conductivity, and adding a predetermined amount of metal thereon by electroplating. However, it is obtained by incinerating and removing the resin component remaining inside as needed. For example, Patent Document 5 describes that a metal porous body is obtained by performing nickel plating on the skeleton surface of a polyurethane foam and then removing the polyurethane foam. Patent Document 6 discloses a fuel cell current collector in which a metal plating layer containing fine water-repellent fluororesin is formed on the surface of a base material made of a porous nickel material, and press-formed. The body is listed.

However, for the following reasons, the lithium-based non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery has an oxidation resistance and an electrolyte resistance, a large porosity, and a positive electrode current collector suitable for industrial production. Is not provided.
That is, in order to increase the porosity of the current collector, the surface of the porous organic resin is generally plated, and the organic resin is incinerated and removed as necessary, as typically represented by a nickel porous body. Is done. However, the nickel porous body is easily oxidized in the lithium non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, and is dissolved in the electrolyte solution, so that sufficient charging cannot be performed by long-term charge / discharge.

  On the other hand, in aluminum, which is the main material of the current positive electrode current collector, it is necessary to process in a very high temperature molten salt state in order to perform the plating process, so an organic resin can be used as the object to be plated. However, it is difficult to plate the surface of the organic resin. Therefore, a porous current collector made of aluminum is not currently provided.

Stainless steel is also widely used as a material for the positive electrode current collector. For the same reason as stainless steel, this stainless steel should be made a highly porous current collector by plating the surface of the organic resin. It is difficult.
As for stainless steel, there is provided a method for obtaining a porous body by making it into a powder form, applying it to an organic resin porous body and sintering it.
However, stainless steel powder is very expensive. Moreover, since the organic resin porous body to which the powder adheres is removed by incineration, there is a problem that the strength is reduced and it cannot be used.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a current collector that has oxidation resistance and electrolytic solution resistance, has a high porosity, and is suitable for industrial production, and further provides a positive electrode obtained by using this current collector.

JP-A-11-233151 JP 2000-195522 A Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-078991 JP 2006-032144 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-154517 Japanese Patent No. 4534033

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention aims to provide a porous metal body excellent in electrolytic resistance and corrosion resistance suitable for batteries and capacitors such as lithium ion batteries and current collectors of fuel cells. To do.

(1) A porous metal body comprising an alloy containing at least nickel and tin.
(2) The metal porous body according to (1) above, wherein the metal porous body has a tin content of 1 to 58 wt%.
(3) The porous metal body according to (1) or (2), wherein the porous metal body further contains 10 wt% or less of phosphorus as a component.
(4) The porous metal body according to any one of (1) to (3) above, wherein the corrosion resistance is improved by subjecting the porous metal body to electrolytic oxidation treatment in a liquid.
(5) At least nickel comprising: a step of coating a nickel porous body with a metal containing at least tin; and a step of subsequently performing a heat treatment to diffuse tin into the nickel porous body. A method for producing a porous metal body comprising an alloy containing tin.
(6) The nickel porous body is obtained by coating nickel on a porous base material subjected to a conductive treatment, and reducing the nickel after removing the porous base material. The manufacturing method of the metal porous body as described in (5).

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the metal porous body excellent in the electrolytic resistance and corrosion resistance suitable for batteries, capacitors, such as a lithium ion battery, and the collector of a fuel cell can be provided.

The porous metal body according to the present invention is made of an alloy containing at least nickel and tin. Since the metal porous body is an alloy containing at least nickel and tin, the electrolytic resistance and the corrosion resistance are improved.
In the metal porous body, the tin content is preferably 1 wt% or more and 58 wt% or less. When the tin content is 1 wt% or more, the effects of electrolytic resistance and corrosion resistance are sufficiently exhibited. On the other hand, if the tin content exceeds 58 wt%, the heat resistance is lowered and a brittle intermetallic compound may be generated, which is not preferable.

  The metal porous body of the present invention preferably further contains 10 wt% or less phosphorus as a component. Thereby, electrolysis resistance and corrosion resistance improve more. However, since heat resistance falls when it contains too much, it is preferable that content of phosphorus is 10 wt% or less.

Moreover, it is preferable that the metal porous body of this invention has improved corrosion resistance by carrying out the electrolytic oxidation process in a liquid. Thereby, the metal porous body which further improved the electrolysis resistance and the corrosion resistance is obtained.
For example, by linear sweep voltammetry, that is, by applying a potential to a sample once over a wide range to examine a potential with a high current value, and then applying a potential with a high current until the current becomes sufficiently small. Can be processed.

  The method for producing a porous metal body of the present invention comprises a step of coating a nickel porous body with an alloy containing at least tin, and a step of subsequently performing a heat treatment to diffuse tin into the nickel porous body. And Moreover, tin can be diffused in the nickel porous body by heat treatment in an inert atmosphere or a reducing atmosphere.

  In the nickel porous body, first, the surface of the porous base material is subjected to a conductive treatment to form a conductive film (hereinafter referred to as “conductive coating layer”). It is preferable that the electroplating layer is formed on the surface of the material, and then the porous substrate is removed and then nickel is reduced.

(Porous substrate)
As the porous substrate in the present invention, any known or commercially available porous material may be used, and resin foams, nonwoven fabrics, felts, woven fabrics, etc. are used, but these are used in combination as necessary. You can also. Moreover, although it does not specifically limit as a raw material, The thing which can be removed by incineration after plating a metal is preferable. Further, in handling the porous substrate, a sheet-like material is preferably a flexible material because it breaks when the rigidity is high.

  In the present invention, it is preferable to use a resin foam as the porous substrate. Examples of the resin foam include urethane foam, foamed styrene, and foamed melamine resin. Among these, urethane foam is particularly preferable from the viewpoint of high porosity.

The porosity of the porous substrate is not limited and is usually about 60% to 97%, preferably about 80% to 96%. The thickness of the porous substrate is not limited, and is appropriately determined depending on the application and the like. Usually, it is about 300 μm or more and 5000 μm or less, preferably 400 μm or more and 2000 μm or less.
Below, this invention is demonstrated taking the case where a foamed resin is used as a porous body base material as an example.

(Conductive treatment)
The conductive treatment is not limited as long as a conductive layer can be provided on the surface of the foamed resin. Examples of the material constituting the conductive layer (conductive coating layer) include graphite, in addition to metals such as nickel, titanium, and stainless steel.
As specific examples of the conductive treatment, for example, when a metal such as nickel is used, electroless plating treatment, vapor phase treatment such as sputtering, vapor deposition / ion plating, and the like are preferably exemplified. Moreover, when using materials, such as alloy metals, such as stainless steel, and graphite, the process of apply | coating the mixture obtained by adding a binder to the fine powder of these materials on the surface of foamed resin is mentioned preferably.

  The electroless plating treatment using nickel can be performed, for example, by immersing the foamed resin in a known electroless nickel plating bath such as a nickel sulfate aqueous solution containing sodium hypophosphite as a reducing agent. If necessary, the foamed resin may be immersed in an activation liquid containing a trace amount of palladium ions (cleaning liquid manufactured by Kanigen Co., Ltd.) or the like before immersion in the plating bath.

  As a sputtering process using nickel, for example, after attaching a foamed resin to a substrate holder, ionization is performed by applying a DC voltage between the holder and a target (nickel) while introducing an inert gas. The nickel particles blown off may be deposited on the foamed resin surface by colliding the inert gas with nickel.

The weight of the conductive coating layer (attachment amount) is 42 wt% or more and 99 wt% or less of nickel, and 1 wt% of tin in the final metal composition combined with the weight of nickel plating or nickel-tin alloy plating in the subsequent process. As mentioned above, it is preferable to adjust so that it may be 58 wt% or less.
When nickel is used for the conductive coating layer, it may be formed continuously on the surface of the foamed resin, and the basis weight is not limited, but is usually about 5 g / m ² or more and 15 g / m ² or less, preferably 7 g / m ^2. m ² or more, it may be set to the degree 10 g / m ² or less.

(Electrolytic nickel plating treatment)
What is necessary is just to perform an electrolytic nickel plating process in accordance with a conventional method. As the plating bath used for the electrolytic nickel plating treatment, a known or commercially available bath can be used, and examples thereof include a watt bath, a chloride bath, a sulfamic acid bath, and the like.
A porous substrate with a conductive layer formed on the surface by electroless plating or sputtering is immersed in a plating bath, and the porous substrate is connected to the cathode and the nickel counter electrode is connected to the anode to supply direct current or intermittent pulse current. As a result, a nickel coating can be further formed on the conductive layer.
The basis weight of the electrolytic nickel plating layer is preferably adjusted so that the final metal composition of the metal porous body is in the range of 42 wt% or more and 99 wt% or less of nickel and 1 wt% or more and 58 wt% or less of tin. .

(Foamed resin removal treatment and reduction treatment)
The method for removing the foamed resin component is not limited, but it is preferably removed by incineration. Specifically, the heating may be performed in an oxidizing atmosphere such as air of about 600 ° C. or higher.
The metal porous body is obtained by heat-treating the obtained porous body under a reducing atmosphere to reduce the metal.

About the manufacturing method of said nickel porous body, Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 04-002795, Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 08-069801, etc. are disclosed, for example.
Below, the implementation method of each process performed after performing conductive coating is demonstrated.

(Tin plating process)
The step of coating the porous nickel body with an alloy containing at least tin can be performed, for example, as follows. That is, as a sulfuric acid bath, a plating bath having a composition of stannous sulfate 55 g / L, sulfuric acid 100 g / L, cresol sulfonic acid 100 g / L, gelatin 2 g / L, β naphthol 1 g / L is prepared, and the cathode current density is set. Tin plating can be performed at 2 A / dm ² , an anode current density of 1 A / dm ² or less, a temperature of 20 ° C., and stirring (cathode oscillation) of 2 m / min.

  The basis weight of tin plating is preferably adjusted so that the final metal composition of the metal porous body is 42 wt% or more and 99 wt% or less of nickel, and 1 wt% or more and 58 wt% or less of tin.

Further, in order to improve the adhesion of tin plating, it is desirable to perform strike nickel plating immediately before, wash the metal porous body, and put it into the tin plating solution without getting dried. Thereby, the adhesiveness of a plating layer can be improved.
The conditions for strike nickel plating can be as follows, for example. That is, a wood strike nickel bath having a composition of nickel chloride 240 g / L, hydrochloric acid (having a specific gravity of about 1.18) 125 ml / L is prepared, the temperature is set to room temperature, and nickel or carbon is used for the anode. It can be carried out.

  Summarizing the above plating procedures, degreasing by an A-screen (cathodic electrolytic degreasing 5 ASD × 1 minute), hot water washing, water washing, acid activity (hydrochloric acid immersion 1 minute), wood strike nickel plating treatment (5-10 ASD × 1 minute), It is processed to tin plating without washing and drying, washing with water and drying.

(Plating solution circulation during plating)
In general, it is difficult to uniformly plate the inside of a porous substrate such as a foamed resin. It is preferable to circulate the plating solution in order to prevent non-attachment of the inside or to reduce the difference in the amount of plating adhesion between the inside and the outside. As a circulation method, there are methods such as using a pump and installing a fan inside the plating tank. Moreover, if a plating solution is sprayed on a base material using these methods, or a base material is made to adjoin a suction port, the plating solution can easily flow inside the base material, which is effective.

(Heat treatment)
Since nickel having low corrosion resistance may be exposed as it is after plating, it is necessary to diffuse the tin component by heat treatment. Tin can be diffused in an inert atmosphere (reduced pressure, nitrogen, argon, etc.) or in a reducing atmosphere (hydrogen).
In this heat treatment step, the tin component is sufficiently diffused in the nickel plating layer, and the concentration ratio between the front side and the inner side tin of the metal porous body skeleton is a range where the front side concentration / inner concentration is 2/1 or more and 1/2 or less It is preferable that More preferably, it is 3/2 or more and 2/3 or less, still more preferably 4/3 or more and 3/4 or less, and most preferably, it is uniformly diffused.

  If the heat treatment temperature is too low, it takes time for diffusion, and if it is too high, the heat treatment temperature may soften and damage the porous structure by its own weight. However, when tin concentration is 40 wt% or more, it is necessary to make 850 degreeC into an upper limit. More preferably, it is 400 degreeC or more and 800 degrees C or less, More preferably, it is 500 degreeC or more and 700 degrees C or less.

(Nickel-tin alloy plating)
In the above description, the method of performing nickel plating on the porous substrate, then tin-plating, and alloying by heat treatment has been described, but after conducting the conductive treatment on the porous substrate, the nickel-tin alloy plating is performed. It is also possible to apply. The composition of the nickel-tin alloy plating solution in this case is adjusted so that the final metal composition of the metal porous body is 42 wt% or more and 99 wt% or less of nickel, and 1 wt% or more and 58 wt% or less of tin. Is preferred. And after forming nickel-tin alloy plating, a porous metal base material is obtained by removing a porous body base material and then heat-processing in a reducing atmosphere and reducing a metal.

(Metal weight)
The total amount of metal basis weight of the conductive coating layer, nickel coating layer, and alloy coating layer is preferably 200 g / m ² or more and 1000 g / m ² or less. More preferably, they are 300 g / m < ² > or more and 600 g / m < ² > or less, More preferably, they are 400 g / m < ² > or more and 500 g / m < ² > or less. If the total amount is less than 200 g / m ² , the strength of the current collector may be reduced. On the other hand, if the total amount exceeds 1000 g / m ² , the filling amount of the polarizable material is reduced, and the cost is disadvantageous.

(Pore diameter)
When using a metal porous body for the catalyst layer of a fuel cell, the average pore diameter is preferably 1 μm or more and 50 μm or less. More preferably, they are 2 micrometers or more and 20 micrometers or less, More preferably, they are 2 micrometers or more and 5 micrometers or less. In addition, when using as an electrical power collector, 50 micrometers or more and 1000 micrometers or less are preferable. More preferably, they are 50 micrometers or more and 600 micrometers or less, More preferably, they are 80 micrometers or more and 300 micrometers or less.

(Confirmation of metal porous body composition)
Quantitative measurement using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) can be performed to determine the mass% of the contained element.

(Diffusion confirmation of tin)
By conducting energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurement from a cross section of a porous metal body and comparing the spectrum of the skeleton front side and the skeleton inner side, the diffusion state of tin can be confirmed. .

Example 1
A polyurethane sheet having a thickness of 1.5 mm was used as the porous resin sheet, and this was subjected to surface treatment by immersing it in a mixed solution of 400 g / L of chromium trioxide and 400 g / L of sulfuric acid at 60 ° C. for 1 minute. By performing such surface treatment, a conductive film to be subsequently deposited and an anchor effect are formed, and high adhesion can be obtained.
Next, 20 g of carbon powder having a particle size of 0.01 to 20 μm was dispersed in 80 g of a 10% acrylic styrene-based synthetic resin aqueous solution to prepare a carbon paint.
Next, the foamed urethane subjected to the above surface treatment was continuously dipped in the paint, squeezed with a roll, and then dried to give a conductive treatment.

And the nickel porous body whose fabric weight is 200 g / m < ² > was produced by giving nickel plating to the resin porous body sheet | seat which performed this electroconductivity process.
Nickel plating was performed in a sulfamic acid bath. The sulfamic acid bath was an aqueous solution having a concentration of 450 g / L nickel sulfamate and 30 g / L boric acid, and the pH was adjusted to 4. Nickel plating was performed at a temperature of 55 ° C. and a current density of 20 ASD (A / dm ² ).

  Furthermore, the base material (resin porous sheet) was burned and removed by heating at 1000 ° C. for 15 minutes in the atmosphere. At this time, since the metal porous body is also partially oxidized, reduction treatment was further performed in a reducing (hydrogen) atmosphere at 1000 ° C. for 20 minutes.

A nickel porous body having a basis weight of 200 g / m ² prepared in the above was subjected to tin plating of basis weight 2 g / m ^2, is diffused tin by heat treatment to obtain a nickel 99 wt%, the porous metal body of the tin 1 wt% of the composition.
As a plating solution for tin plating, a composition of 55 g / L of stannous sulfate, 100 g / L of sulfuric acid, 100 g / L of cresolsulfonic acid, 2 g / L of gelatin, and 1 g / L of β-naphthol is used for 1000 g of water. did. The bath temperature of the plating bath was 20 ° C., and the anode current density was 1 A / dm ² . The plating solution was agitated so as to be 2 m / min by the cathode oscillation.
In the heat treatment step, heat treatment was performed at 550 ° C. for 10 minutes in a reducing (hydrogen) atmosphere.

  In the EDX spectrum comparison, there is no difference between the front side and the inner side, and it is considered that tin diffuses evenly.

(Example 2)
A metal porous body was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the basis weight of tin plating on the nickel porous body was 59.7 g / m ² . As a result, a nickel-tin alloy porous body having a Sn content of 23 wt% was obtained.
In the EDX spectrum comparison, there is no difference between the front side and the inner side, and it is considered that tin diffuses evenly.

(Example 3)
A metal porous body was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the basis weight of tin plating on the nickel porous body was 216.7 g / m ² . As a result, a nickel-tin alloy porous body having a Sn content of 52 wt% was obtained.
In the EDX spectrum comparison, there is no difference between the front side and the inner side, and it is considered that tin diffuses evenly.

Example 4
In the same manner as in Example 2, a nickel-tin alloy porous body having a Sn content of 23 wt% was prepared with a tin plating basis weight of 59.7 g / m ² . Further, a potential of 0.2 V vs. SHE was applied for 15 minutes in an aqueous sodium sulfate solution having a concentration of 1 mol / L.
In the EDX spectrum comparison, there is no difference between the front side and the inner side, and it is considered that tin diffuses evenly.

(Comparative Example 1)
In the same manner as in Example 1, a nickel porous body obtained by applying nickel plating to urethane foam after the conductive treatment and removing the urethane by heat treatment was prepared.

(Comparative Example 2)
In the same manner as in Example 1, the electrofoamed urethane foam was subjected to nickel electroplating, the urethane was removed by heat treatment, and then tin plating was performed. Unlike Example 1, the heat treatment step after tin plating was not performed.

<Evaluation>
(Evaluation of electrolysis resistance)
In order to confirm the electrolysis resistance, polarization measurement was performed by a method based on ASTM G5. Each porous metal body was cut into 1 cm width × 2 cm and used. A silver / silver chloride electrode was used for the reference electrode, and a platinum mesh was used for the counter electrode. The solution was sodium sulfate having a concentration of 1 mol / L, the pH was adjusted to 5, and the temperature was measured at 60 ° C. After performing hydrogen bubbling to replace the dissolved oxygen with hydrogen, the measurement was performed in the bubbled state. The area of the sample was apparently 1 cm ² immersed in the liquid, and the potential was swept at a rate of 5 mV / s in the range of −0.3 to 1 V with respect to the standard hydrogen potential. The maximum value of the flowing current is shown in Table 1 below.

While the nickel porous body of Comparative Example 1 flowed 0.1 A or more, the nickel tin porous body of the present invention flowed only 0.002 A or less, and showed excellent electrolytic resistance. Further, it can be seen from the results of Example 4 that the current can be reduced by the process of applying a constant potential. This is thought to be because a dense oxide film was formed on the surface by applying a constant potential.
On the other hand, since the same current as in Comparative Example 1 also flowed in Comparative Example 2, it can be seen that tin diffusion by heat treatment is essential.

  Since the metal porous body of the present invention is excellent in electrolytic resistance and corrosion resistance, it can be suitably used as a current collector for batteries such as lithium ion batteries, capacitors, and fuel cells.

Claims (6)

  A porous metal body comprising an alloy containing at least nickel and tin.   The metal porous body according to claim 1, wherein the metal porous body has a tin content of 1 to 58 wt%.   The porous metal body according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the porous metal body further contains 10 wt% or less of phosphorus as a component.   The metal porous body according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the metal porous body is subjected to electrolytic oxidation treatment in a liquid to improve corrosion resistance.   A step of covering a porous nickel body with a metal containing at least tin, and a step of subsequently performing a heat treatment to diffuse the tin into the porous nickel body, comprising at least nickel and tin A method for producing a metal porous body made of an alloy.   6. The nickel porous body according to claim 5, wherein the nickel porous body is obtained by coating nickel on a porous base material subjected to a conductive treatment, and reducing the nickel after removing the porous base material. The manufacturing method of the metal porous body of description.