What Is A Lithium Ion Battery?

Table of Contents

With the wide application and popularization of digital electronic products and new energy power products, the lithium-ion battery industry has achieved rapid development. It has formed an industrial chain system with high specialization and a clear division of labour. After more than ten years of product, the global lithium-ion battery The ion battery market is increasing.

What Is A Lithium Battery?

Lithium batteries are the main battery used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles.

Lithium Battery Structure Composition

The battery mainly comprises positive and negative electrodes, electrolytes, separators and a casing.

Positive electrode—A carbon electrode that can absorb lithium ions is used. When discharging, lithium turns into lithium ions, which leave the anode of the battery and reach the cathode of the lithium-ion battery.

Negative electrode–materials choose intercalable lithium compounds whose potential is as close as possible to lithium potentials, such as various carbon materials including natural graphite, synthetic graphite, carbon fibre, mesophase small spherical carbon, etc., and metal oxides.

Electrolyte — A mixed solvent system with alkyl carbonates such as LiPF6 ethylene carbonate, propylene carbonate and low-viscosity diethyl carbonate.

Diaphragm — Polyene microporous membranes such as PE, PP or their composite membrane, mainly the PP/PE/PP three-layer separator, not only has a low melting point but also has a high puncture resistance, which plays a role of thermal insurance.

Shell— made of steel or aluminium, the cover assembly, has the function of being explosion-proof and power-off.

Lithium Battery Product Classification

Lithium batteries can be roughly divided into two categories: lithium-metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium metal battery: Lithium metal battery is generally a battery that uses manganese dioxide as the positive electrode material, metal lithium or its alloy metal as the negative electrode material, and uses a non-aqueous electrolyte solution.

Lithium-ion battery: Lithium-ion batteries generally use lithium alloy metal oxides as positive electrode materials, graphite as negative electrode materials, and non-aqueous electrolytes.

Are Lithium-ion batteries recyclable?

A lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery that uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy.

How are lithium-ion batteries made?

Different Li-ion batteries vary in chemistry, performance, cost, and safety characteristics. Most commercial lithium-ion batteries use intercalation compounds as active materials. The anode or negative electrode is usually graphite, although silicon-carbon materials are also increasingly used.

Lithium Ion Batteries Benefits

Lithium-ion batteries have the advantages of being relatively lightweight, having large storage capacity, and having no memory effect. They are widely used-many electronic devices now use lithium-ion batteries as the host power supply, even though their prices are relatively high.

The energy density of lithium-ion batteries is very high, its storage capacity is 1.5~2 times that of nickel-metal hydride batteries of the same weight, and it has a meagre self-discharge rate. In addition, lithium-ion batteries have no “memory effect”, and the advantages of not containing toxic substances are also crucial reasons for their widespread use.

Long cycle life:

The lithium-ion battery is charged and discharged at a rate of 1C, and its cycle life is higher than or equal to 500 times, and the capacitance at the 500th time exceeds the nominal copper beam by 70%. However, even if the lead-acid battery is discharged at 0.5C and charged at 0.15C, its cycle life should be less than or equal to 350 times, and its capacity should be less than or equal to 60%. Good discharge performance at low temperature: lithium-ion batteries can work normally at -25 degrees, and their capacity can reach 70% of the nominal capacity, while lead-acid batteries can reach 50% of the capacity at -10 degrees, and at -25 degrees. It cannot work normally.

Strong charge retention ability:

After a fully charged lithium-ion battery pack is placed for two months, its capacity is higher than or equal to 80%, while that of a lead-acid battery is only 40%-50% of the nominal capacity after being placed for two months. Strong continuation ability, since the weight of the lithium-ion battery pack is only 30% of the lead-acid battery, so under the same voltage and capacity, the lithium-ion battery has a strong continuation ability.

High energy:

Since the volume of lithium-ion batteries is only 30% of that of lead-acid batteries, the energy reserve of lithium-ion batteries is larger than that of lead-acid batteries when using the same space.

In addition, it should be noted that the exterior of lithium batteries is generally marked with English 7.2V lithium ion battery or 7.2V lithium secondary battery (lithium secondary battery), 7.2V lithium ion rechargeable battery (rechargeable lithium battery), so users must be careful when purchasing rechargeable batteries. See the marks on the surface of the rechargeable battery block to avoid mistaking the nickel-cadmium and nickel-hydrogen rechargeable batteries for lithium batteries because you do not see the type of rechargeable batteries clearly. No memory effect greatly facilitates mobile phone users. Users do not need to discharge and recharge each time they charge, but can also charge their mobile phones at any time as they like.

Lithium Ion Batteries Disadvantage

The disadvantage of lithium batteries is that they are relatively expensive and they are not widely used at this stage. They are mainly used in handheld computers, PDAs, communication equipment, digital cameras, communication satellites, cruise missiles, missiles, equipment, etc. With the development of technology, the improvement of technology and the increase in production volume, the price of lithium batteries will drop again and again, and their use will become more common.

How to store lithium-ion batteries when not in use

Lithium primary batteries have very low self-discharge and can be stored for 3 years. Stored under refrigerated conditions, the effect will be better. It is a good way to store lithium primary batteries in low temperature areas. Lithium-ion batteries can be stored for about half a year at 20°C because of their low self-discharge rate and most of the storage capacity can be recovered. The self-discharge phenomenon exists in lithium batteries. If the battery voltage is stored below 3.6V for a long time, it will cause over-discharge of the rechargeable battery and destroy the internal structure of the rechargeable battery, reducing the battery life. Therefore, long-term storage of lithium batteries should be recharged every 3 to 6 months; that is, charging to a voltage of 3.8 to 3.9V (the best storage voltage of lithium batteries is about 3.85V) is appropriate, and it is not suitable for full charging.

How do lithium-ion batteries work?

The working principle of a lithium-ion battery refers to its charging and discharging principle. There are various types of batteries besides Lithium-Ion, and the basic working principle of how batteries generate electricity is the same.

A battery has a positive electrode (positive electrode) and a negative electrode (negative electrode) made of metal materials, and a substance (electrolyte) that conducts electricity through ions is filled between the positive and negative electrodes. The metal electrode is melted by the electrolyte and divided into ions and electrons. The electrons move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode to generate current, and electricity is generated at this time. The secondary battery is charged before the battery is used, and electrons are stored in the negative electrode in advance. When the battery is used, the stored electrons move to the positive electrode to generate electricity.

Lithium-ion batteries use lithium-containing metal compounds on the positive electrode in advance, and carbon (graphite) that can absorb and store lithium is used on the negative electrode. Through such a structure, electricity can be generated without melting the electrodes by electrolyte as in traditional batteries, slowing down the ageing of the battery itself, storing more electricity and increasing the number of charge and discharge times. In addition, lithium is a minimal and light substance, so that batteries can have various advantages such as small size and lightweight.

What Are The Types Of Lithium Batteries?

Cobalt-based lithium-ion batteries

Lithium cobaltate was used for the positive electrode. Lithium cobaltate is relatively easy to synthesize and use, so the earliest mass production of lithium-ion batteries is lithium-cobaltate. But because cobalt is a rare metal and expensive, it is hardly used in auto parts.

Pros – Widely adopted as the standard battery for Li-ion.

Cons – Expensive, not used for in-vehicle use.

Manganese lithium-ion battery

Lithium manganese oxide was used for the positive electrode. The advantage is that the voltage can be similar to that of cobalt-based lithium-ion batteries, and the manufacturing cost is cheap. The disadvantage is that manganese may melt into the electrolyte during charging and discharging, shortening the battery’s life.

Pros– High safety, fast charging and fast discharging.

Iron phosphate lithium-ion battery

Lithium iron phosphate is used for the positive electrode. The advantage of the iron phosphate lithium-ion battery is that it is difficult to damage the internal heating structure, has high safety, and uses iron as the raw material, so the manufacturing cost is lower than that of the manganese-based battery. But the voltage is lower than other Li-ion batteries.

Pros – Inexpensive and long cycle life (ageing due to charging and discharging), calendar life (ageing due to shelving).

Cons – Lower voltage than other Li-ion batteries.

Ternary lithium-ion battery

The ternary lithium-ion battery is made of three materials, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, to reduce the amount of cobalt used. Currently, most ternary lithium-ion batteries have a high proportion of nickel. Although the voltage is slightly lower than that of cobalt-based and manganese-based, it can reduce manufacturing costs. However, despite this, the synthesis and preparation of each material are complicated, the stability is low, and there are still problems to be solved as functional materials.

Pros – Fairly high voltage, long cycle life.

What Are Lithium Battery Used For?

The first commercialized lithium-ion batteries for home appliances in the first half of the 1990s were used in video cameras to meet their needs for small size and lightweight. Afterwards, it was continuously used in mobile phones that were rapidly popularized then, and the market demand instantly increased. Nowadays, lithium-ion batteries have been widely used in various scenes in our lives, such as smartphones, laptop computers, electric vehicles, electric bicycles and other fields.

Choose The Right Lithium Battery Manufacturer

The rapid development of new energy vehicles has brought a strong demand for power lithium batteries. In areas where new energy vehicles are developing most rapidly, more and more Chinese lithium battery companies have begun to rank at the forefront of lithium batteries globally. If you are looking for a quality supplier of lithium batteries, please get in touch with KHLiTech.

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