Lithium Batteries

Explains the current state of the science and points the way to technological advances

First developed in the late 1980s, lithium-ion batteries now power everything from tablet computers to power tools to electric cars. Despite tremendous progress in the last two decades in the engineering and manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries, they are currently unable to meet the energy and power demands of many new and emerging devices. This book sets the stage for the development of a new generation of higher-energy density, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries by advancing battery chemistry and identifying new electrode and electrolyte materials.

The first chapter of Lithium Batteries sets the foundation for the rest of the book with a brief account of the history of lithium-ion battery development. Next, the book covers such topics as:

• Advanced organic and ionic liquid electrolytes for battery applications
• Advanced cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries
• Metal fluorosulphates capable of doubling the energy density of lithium-ion batteries
• Efforts to develop lithium-air batteries
• Alternative anode rechargeable batteries such as magnesium and sodium anode systems

Each of the sixteen chapters has been contributed by one or more leading experts in electrochemistry and lithium battery technology. Their contributions are based on the latest published findings as well as their own firsthand laboratory experience. Figures throughout the book help readers understand the concepts underlying the latest efforts to advance the science of batteries and develop new materials. Readers will also find a bibliography at the end of each chapter to facilitate further research into individual topics.

Lithium Batteries provides electrochemistry students and researchers with a snapshot of current efforts to improve battery performance as well as the tools needed to advance their own research efforts.

BRUNO SCROSATI, PhD, has been Professor of Electrochemistry at the Sapienza University of Rome, and a visiting professor at the Universities of Minnesota and Pennsylvania in the U.S., and Hanyang University in South Korea. He is a past president of the Electrochemical Society. He is a recipient of the Research Award from the Battery Division of that society; the Vittorio de Nora Award, also from the Electrochemical Society; and the XVI Edition of the Italgas Prize, Science and Environment. He is the author of more than 450 scientific publications.

K. M. ABRAHAM, PhD, is Research Professor at Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technology, Boston, and the principal of E-KEM Sciences. He has contributed pioneering work on rechargeable lithium batteries and the invention of new lithium and sodium battery chemical couples, including the ultrahigh-energy density non-aqueous lithium-air battery. He is a Battery Research Award winner and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

WALTER VAN SCHALKWIJK, PhD, is Principal at EnergyPlex Corporation and an Affiliate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. With over thirty years of experience in the battery industry, he is a member of the Electrochemical Society, a past chairman of the society's Nanotechnology Committee, and a past member of its board of directors. He coedited Advances in Lithium-Ion Batteries.

JUSEF HASSOUN, PhD, is Assistant Research Scientist in the Chemistry Department of the Sapienza University of Rome. He obtained a PhD in materials science in the field of advanced lithium-ion batteries in 2009. He is author of more than sixty papers in international journals in the fields of materials science, electrochemistry, and energy storage systems.