A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery (abbreviated as LIB) is a type of rechargeable battery. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used for portable electronics and electric vehicles and are growing in popularity for military and aerospace applications. A prototype Li-ion battery was developed by Akira Yoshino in 1985, based on earlier research by John Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, Rachid Yazami and Koichi Mizushima during the 1970s–1980s, and then a commercial Li-ion battery was developed by a Sony and Asahi Kasei team led by Yoshio Nishi in 1991. In 2019, The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to Yoshino, Goodenough, and Whittingham “for the development of lithium ion batteries”.

In the batteries, lithium ions move from the negative electrode through an electrolyte to the positive electrode during discharge, and back when charging. Li-ion batteries use an intercalated lithium compound as the material at the positive electrode and typically graphite at the negative electrode. The batteries have a high energy density, no memory effect (other than LFP cells) and low self-discharge. They can however be a safety hazard since they contain flammable electrolytes, and if damaged or incorrectly charged can lead to explosions and fires. Samsung was forced to recall Galaxy Note 7 handsets following lithium-ion fires, and there have been several incidents involving batteries on Boeing 787s.

Chemistry, performance, cost and safety characteristics vary across LIB types. Handheld electronics mostly use lithium polymer batteries (with a polymer gel as electrolyte) with lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) as cathode material, which offers high energy density, but presents safety risks, especially when damaged. Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4, Li2MnO3, or LMO), and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (LiNiMnCoO2 or NMC) offer lower energy density but longer lives and less likelihood of fire or explosion. Such batteries are widely used for electric tools, medical equipment, and other roles. NMC and its derivatives are widely used in electric vehicles.

Research areas for lithium-ion batteries include extending lifetime, increasing energy density, improving safety, reducing cost, and increasing charging speed, among others. Research has been under way in the area of non-flammable electrolytes as a pathway to increased safety based on the flammability and volatility of the organic solvents used in the typical electrolyte. Strategies include aqueous lithium-ion batteries, ceramic solid electrolytes, polymer electrolytes, ionic liquids, and heavily fluorinated systems.

Battery versus cell

A cell is a basic electrochemical unit that contains the electrodes, separator, and electrolyte.

A battery or battery pack is a collection of cells or cell assemblies, with housing, electrical connections, and possibly electronics for control and protection.

Anode and cathode electrodes
For rechargeable cells, the term anode (or negative electrode) designates the electrode where oxidation is taking place during the discharge cycle; the other electrode is the cathode (or positive electrode). During the charge cycle, the positive electrode becomes the anode and the negative electrode becomes the cathode. For most lithium-ion cells, the lithium-oxide electrode is the positive electrode; for titanate lithium-ion cells (LTO), the lithium-oxide electrode is the negative electrode.

History

Background

Varta lithium-ion battery, Museum Autovision, Altlussheim, Germany
Lithium batteries were proposed by British chemist and co-recipient of the 2019 Nobel prize for chemistry M. Stanley Whittingham, now at Binghamton University, while working for Exxon in the 1970s. Whittingham used titanium(IV) sulfide and lithium metal as the electrodes. However, this rechargeable lithium battery could never be made practical. Titanium disulfide was a poor choice, since it has to be synthesized under completely sealed conditions, also being quite expensive (~$1,000 per kilogram for titanium disulfide raw material in 1970s). When exposed to air, titanium disulfide reacts to form hydrogen sulfide compounds, which have an unpleasant odour and are toxic to most animals. For this, and other reasons, Exxon discontinued development of Whittingham’s lithium-titanium disulfide battery.[28] Batteries with metallic lithium electrodes presented safety issues, as lithium metal reacts with water, releasing flammable hydrogen gas. Consequently, research moved to develop batteries in which, instead of metallic lithium, only lithium compounds are present, being capable of accepting and releasing lithium ions.

Reversible intercalation in graphite and intercalation into cathodic oxides was discovered during 1974–76 by J. O. Besenhard at TU Munich. Besenhard proposed its application in lithium cells. Electrolyte decomposition and solvent co-intercalation into graphite were severe early drawbacks for battery life.

Development

1973 – Adam Heller proposed the lithium thionyl chloride battery, still used in implanted medical devices and in defense systems where a greater than 20-year shelf life, high energy density, and/or tolerance for extreme operating temperatures are required.
1977 – Samar Basu demonstrated electrochemical intercalation of lithium in graphite at the University of Pennsylvania. This led to the development of a workable lithium intercalated graphite electrode at Bell Labs (LiC6) to provide an alternative to the lithium metal electrode battery.
1979 – Working in separate groups, Ned A. Godshall et al., and, shortly thereafter, John B. Goodenough (Oxford University) and Koichi Mizushima (Tokyo University), demonstrated a rechargeable lithium cell with voltage in the 4 V range using lithium cobalt dioxide (LiCoO2) as the positive electrode and lithium metal as the negative electrode. This innovation provided the positive electrode material that enabled early commercial lithium batteries. LiCoO2 is a stable positive electrode material which acts as a donor of lithium ions, which means that it can be used with a negative electrode material other than lithium metal. By enabling the use of stable and easy-to-handle negative electrode materials, LiCoO2 enabled novel rechargeable battery systems. Godshall et al. further identified the similar value of ternary compound lithium-transition metal-oxides such as the spinel LiMn2O4, Li2MnO3, LiMnO2, LiFeO2, LiFe5O8, and LiFe5O4 (and later lithium-copper-oxide and lithium-nickel-oxide cathode materials in 1985)
1980 – Rachid Yazami demonstrated the reversible electrochemical intercalation of lithium in graphite, and invented the lithium graphite electrode (anode). The organic electrolytes available at the time would decompose during charging with a graphite negative electrode. Yazami used a solid electrolyte to demonstrate that lithium could be reversibly intercalated in graphite through an electrochemical mechanism. As of 2011, Yazami’s graphite electrode was the most commonly used electrode in commercial lithium-ion batteries.
The negative electrode has its origins in PAS (polyacenic semiconductive material) discovered by Tokio Yamabe and later by Shjzukuni Yata in the early 1980s. The seed of this technology was the discovery of conductive polymers by Professor Hideki Shirakawa and his group, and it could also be seen as having started from the polyacetylene lithium ion battery developed by Alan MacDiarmid and Alan J. Heeger et al.
1982 – Godshall et al. were awarded U.S. Patent 4,340,652  for the use of LiCoO2 as cathodes in lithium batteries, based on Godshall’s Stanford University Ph.D. dissertation and 1979 publications.
1983 – Michael M. Thackeray, Peter Bruce, William David, and John Goodenough developed a manganese spinel as a commercially relevant charged cathode material for lithium-ion batteries.
1985 – Akira Yoshino assembled a prototype cell using carbonaceous material into which lithium ions could be inserted as one electrode, and lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) as the other. This dramatically improved safety. LiCoO2 enabled industrial-scale production and enabled the commercial lithium-ion battery.
1989 – Arumugam Manthiram and John B. Goodenough discovered the polyanion class of cathodes. They showed that positive electrodes containing polyanions, e.g., sulfates, produce higher voltages than oxides due to the inductive effect of the polyanion. This polyanion class contains materials such as lithium iron phosphate.

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