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Title: Stable, high performance lithium/iron disulfide cell with LiCl-LiBr-KBr molten electrolyte

Conference ·
OSTI ID:7242767

A stable Li-Al/FeS/sub 2/ cell with a greater than 50% increase in specific energy and specific power has been developed. This cell has two major changes from earlier cells of this type: (1) a novel electrolyte, 25 mol % LiCl-37 mol % LiBr-38 mol % KBr (m.p. 310/sup 0/C) rather than 58 mol % LiCl-42 mol % KCl (m.p. 352/sup 0/C), and (2) a higher loading density (2.4 vs. 1.5 Ah/cm/sup 3/) for the FeS/sub 2/ electrode, which is then operated only on its higher voltage plateau (1.75 V vs. Li-Al). This cell design is designated ''dense upper-plateau (U.P.) FeS/sub 2/ cell'' to distinguish it from the conventional ''two-plateau (T.P.) FeS/sub 2/ cell.'' The new electrolyte permits reduced operating temperatures of 380 to 420/sup 0/C. Conventional cells are operated in a temperature range of 425 to 460/sup 0/C. The use of the dense U.P.-FeS/sub 2/ electrode and the lower melting LiCl-LiBr-KBr electrolyte has eliminated the capacity-loss problem of the Li-Al/FeS/sub 2/ system. A dense U.P.-FeS/sub 2/ electrode cell had no change in capacity utilization (about 89%) after 400 cycles (5400 h) of operation. With LiCl-KCl electrolyte, a FeS/sub 2/ cell would have lost 30% of its capacity in the first 200 cycles. Based on the improved performance, advanced cell designs are expected to achieve a specific energy of 175 Wh/kg at 4-h rate and a specific power of 200 W/kg at 80% depth of discharge.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31-109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
7242767
Report Number(s):
CONF-860810-38; ON: DE87001475
Resource Relation:
Conference: Intersociety energy conversion engineering conference, San Diego, CA, USA, 25 Aug 1986; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English