Lithiated Vanadium Oxide (LVO), Gamma-Lithium Vanadium Bronze (Gamma-LIV2O5) andVanadium Dioxide (VO2) as Thermal Battery Cathode Materials

摘要

Thermal batteries are high temperature reserve batteries, predominantly used inmissiles. Modern designs use a lithium (or lithium alloy) anode, an immobilized molten salt electrolyte and an iron-disulphide cathode. These batteries have many advantages: high reliability, long storage life without maintenance, wide temperature range of operation and, sometimes, high power. However, the energy density is rather low and this could be improved if the individual cell voltage could be raised above the present 2.2 V/cell open circuit-voltage for the lithium iron-disulphide couple. A new cathode material, lithiated vanadium oxide (LVO), been invented at RAE with the advantage of the much higher open-circuit voltage of 2.6 V/cell versus lithium. The properties of LVO have been investigated and it has been shown that LVO consists of vanadium dioxide as the major component. Some lithium bromide is also present.