High temperature performance of La0.6Ce0.4Ni3.45Co0.75Mn0.7Al0.1 hydrogen storage alloy for nickel/metal hydride batteries

•La0.6Ce0.4Ni3.45Co0.75Mn0.7Al0.1 alloy was prepared by arc-melting.•Kinetic and high temperature properties of the alloy have been studied.•La0.6Ce0.4Ni3.45Co0.75Mn0.7Al0.1 alloy reveals good high temperature properties.•The exchange current density of hydrogen increases with increasing temperature.•The diffusion coefficient also increases with increasing temperature.

La0.6Ce0.4Ni3.45Co0.75Mn0.7Al0.1 hydrogen storage alloy has been prepared and its electrochemical characteristics and gas hydrogen absorption/desorption properties have been investigated at different temperatures. X-ray diffraction results indicated that the alloy consists of a single phase with CaCu5-type structure. It is found that the investigated alloy shows good cycle performance and high-rate discharge ability, which display its promising use in the high-power type Ni-MH battery. The exchange current density and the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in the bulky electrode increase with increasing temperature, indicating that increasing temperature is beneficial to charge-transfer reaction and hydrogen diffusion. However, the maximum discharge capacity, the charge retention and the cycling stability degrade with the increase of the temperature.