Rechargeable lithium polymer electrolyte batteries

摘要

Rechargeable lithium polymer electrolyte batteries have been underdevelopment for over ten years. The organic electrolyte has a low-vaporpressure and, in principle, during times of abuse, will be safe withrespect to volatilization, ignition, and explosion. The electrolyte canbe fabricated in the form of a thin solid film so no other separatorelement is required. Thus, the very thin electrolyte, combined with thinelectrode structures, may allow good high rate performance and improvedlithium plating morphology. The possibility of greater intrinsic safetycombined with improved rate capability makes the polymer electrolytebattery system a viable candidate for high performance batteries.Advantages of such batteries are summarized. The polymer electrolytebattery is based upon thin film components that incorporate very largearea electrolyte and electrode layers of about 25-250-μm thickness,such that the ohmic losses associated with the impedance of theelectrolyte are minimized and the electrode kinetics are enhanced. Thehigh energy densities for lithium systems result from the low atomicmass of Li and its high reactivity with most positive materials.Modeling studies of the energy and power capabilities as a function ofbattery design are discussed