Thermally Stable High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries for Naval Aviation Applications Navy SBIR FY2008.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2008.1 Topic No.: N08-017 Topic Title: Thermally Stable High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries for Naval Aviation Applications Proposal No.: N081-017-0127 Firm: Electro Energy, Mobile Products Inc. 3820 S Hancock Expressway Colorado Springs, Colorado 80911-1231 Contact: Scott Preston Phone: (719) 392-4266 Web Site: www.electroenergyinc.com Abstract: Electro Energy has developed a robust high energy density and high specific energy lithium ion wafer cell that has demonstrated suitable characteristics for the development of advanced lithium ion battery chemistry. The cell in addition to being lightweight is easily manufactured and designed for implementation in both a high power and a high energy configuration. Electro Energy has demonstrated advanced electrodes which when fully integrated into the wafer cell will produce a lithium ion battery technology which will satisfy the demands placed upon Navy aircraft. This proposal provides for research and development of an advanced lithium ion battery chemistry that operates safely at a specific energy greater than 200 Wh/kg, and an energy density greater than 400 Wh/l. The key technologies for the proposed high energy battery are a superior cathode, stabilized carbon anode and a high performance ceramic separator. The research and development is expected to enable a complete battery which will demonstrate functionality and stability over a wide temperature range (-40�C to +80�C), high energy density (> 200 Wh/kg at the battery level), low self-discharge (<5% per month), good cycle life (>5,000 at 100% depth of discharge cycles), and long calendar life (>5 years service and storage life). Benefits: Increased specific energy: While the benefits of Moore's Law, doubling the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months, continue to pay enormous dividends throughout our economy and the DoD, the performance of rechargeable batteries has lagged. Recent growth in energy storage capacity of the industry-standard 18650 lithium ion cell has been less than 5% per year. The development of the lithium battery described herein will provide a step change in specific energy. Increased energy density: A significant characteristic of this lithium battery anode development is reduced volume of active materials. Roughly the same gains in energy density as those in specific energy are expected. This will give the chemistry a significant advantage in electronics applications where volume is critical. Increased cycle life: In early testing it appears that the lithium battery anode technology has a significant impact on the overall life cycle degradation rate. These test results show that the rate of decay of the capacity during 100% depth of discharge cycling is reduced by a factor of ten when this anode technology is coupled to typical state-of-the-art cathode materials. Thus where one might now expect a 100% DoD cycle life of 1,000 cycles before capacity decays to 80% of original; it appears that 10,000 cycles may be achievable. Opportunity to take advantage of high specific capacity cathode materials: Recently advanced nano-enabled high specific capacity cathode materials have been developed. In order to take advantage of these materials to increase cell specific energy it is necessary to couple these cathode materials with an anode material of similar specific capacity. This is one of the major goals of this research and development High temperature operation: One of the problems with state-of-the-art lithium batteries is exposure or operation at temperatures above 60�C. At or above this temperature the electrolyte can have deleterious reactions with other cell chemicals. When these reactions occur the cell is permanently damaged. The implementation of the solid polymer electrolyte will allow cells to operate at temperatures much higher than 60�C without any adverse effects. Return