Lithium battery

Contents [hide] 1 Description 2 Chemistries 3 Applications 4 Safety issues and regulation 4.1 Ingestion and choking hazard 4.2 Rapid-discharge issues 4.2.1 Air travel 4.3 Lithium batteries and methamphetamine labs 4.4 Transportation 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Not to be confused with Lithium-ion battery. CR2032 lithium button cell battery Lithium 9 volt, AA, & AAA sizes Lithium batteries are disposable (primary) batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode. Depending on the design and chemical compounds used, lithium cells can produce voltages from 1.5 V to about 3.7 V, over twice the voltage of an ordinary zinc-carbon battery or alkaline cell battery.[1] Lithium batteries are widely used in products such as portable consumer electronic devices

[edit] Description

The term "lithium battery" refers to a family of different chemistries, comprising many types of cathodes and electrolytes.
The most common type of lithium cell used in consumer applications uses metallic lithium as anode and manganese dioxide as cathode, with a salt of lithium dissolved in an organic solvent.

Disassembled CR2016 battery
1st: Anode cup, upside down, spent lithium partially scratched off
2nd: Separator, a thin layer of porous material soaked with electrolyte - lithium salt in an organic solvent
3rd: Cathode, a tablet of manganese dioxide
4th: Cathode can, with current collector (carbon layer) on its bottom and a gasket around its inner edge. Damaged by clumsy opening attempt.

Disassembled CR2032 battery From left - negative cup from inner side with layer of lithium (oxidized in air), separator(porous material), cathode (manganese dioxide), metal grid - current collector, metal casing (+)(damaged during opening the cell), on the bottom is plastic sealing ring

Another type of lithium cell having a large energy density is the lithium-thionyl chloride cell. Lithium-thionyl chloride batteries are generally not sold to the consumer market, and find more use in commercial/industrial applications, or are installed into devices where no consumer replacement is performed. In this cell, a liquid mixture of thionyl chloride (SOCl₂) and lithium tetrachloroaluminate (LiAlCl₄) acts as the electrolyte and cathode respectively. A porous carbon material serves as a cathode current collector which receives electrons from the external circuit. Lithium-thionyl chloride batteries are well suited to extremely low-current applications where long life is necessary, e.g. wireless alarm systems.