Water-enhanced high performance zinc manganese dioxide batteries for high ambient pressure environments

A design approach is offered for the development of high energy density batteries for underwater use or for filling with water at the point of use. The oceans contain chloride ions, oxygen and water. It is proposed to take advantage of this unlimited supply to activate reserve zinc manganese dioxide batteries, and, in effect, create a kind of partial fuel cell with performance at the 100 Wh/pound level. The batteries would operate in equilibrium with ambient pressure and hence would tolerate high-pressure operation as well. The batteries should cost a fraction of those of less fundamentally adaptive systems.<>