A battery’s ubiquitous presence is well known in our technology-driven world. When we think of powering a watch, laptop, phone, electric vehicle, or pallet truck, it is a battery that keeps a device running for a unique purpose.
From everyday electronics and life-saving medical equipment to power grids and luxury yachts, lithium batteries (LIBs) are inextricably linked to our lives in one way or the other.
Lithium-ion battery technology is the most pervasive among other battery technologies, with years of extensive RD behind developing the world’s best-known and widely used batteries.
Lithium is believed to be a comparatively rare metal with lithium mining being a resource-intensive and risky task. Moreover, a liquid electrolyte-based lithium-ion battery is susceptible to an explosion or fire risk, and disposing of/recycling lithium-ion batteries is a challenge, too.
Lithium-ion batteries have been the go-to batteries for capability, convenience, and cost despite major disadvantages like sourcing, safety, and sustainability.
Lithium (symbol: Li) is the third lightest element with the atomic number 3. It is a soft and silvery-white alkali metal that reacts with organic and inorganic reactants in many ways.
As lithium is not found freely in nature, lithium is mined from hard rock and underground brine deposits. Spodumene is the most important lithium ore—Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, the United States, Australia, and China are the leading countries with the largest lithium reserves. Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia are famously referred to as the “Lithium Triangle”—accounting for more than 75% of the world’s lithium reserves.
What is a lithium-ion battery? A lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery that can be charged multiple times as a power source for electronic devices and electric vehicles and used in other applications such as stationary battery energy storage systems (BESSs) and uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs).
During the charging phase in a lithium-ion battery, lithium ions move from the positive side of the battery to the negative side. In contrast, the ions move in the reverse direction during the discharging phase.
Throughout the two phases, an insulating layer called a “separator” blocks the electrons but allows the lithium ions to pass through the electrolyte (conductive material). The movement of lithium ions between the negative and positive poles (negative electrode [anode] and positive electrode [cathode]) of the battery creates an electrical potential difference called “voltage.”
In simple terms, voltage is the amount of electrical potential a battery holds—typically measured in volts. A lithium-ion battery has a nominal battery voltage of 3.7 volts per cell.
When an electronic device is connected to a lithium-ion battery, the blocked electrons pass through the device and power it.
A lithium-ion cell serves as a power cell (delivers high current load over a short period) or an energy cell (delivers sustained current over a long period).
Within the lithium-ion battery portfolio, there are lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries, among other lithium battery variants. Unlike a lithium-ion battery that uses a liquid electrolyte, a lithium polymer (also known as LiPo, Li-poly, and lithium-poly) battery uses a solid gel-like electrolyte.
