7 August 2009 - 13:25High Energy Density Lithium/Carbon Monofluoride Battery for Portable Soldier Power

Lithium/carbon monofluoride batteries are known to have the highest theoretical specific capacity among all commercially available primary lithium batteries. These batteries are being developed by the Army to reduce the size of current BA-5590 battery packs for soldier portable power sources. The main problem with Li/CFx batteries is the low power capability and the initial voltage delay, which are related to the intrinsically low electrical conductivity of CFx material and the slow kinetics of Li-CFx cell reaction. In order to improve the power capability of such batteries, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory attempted two approaches: (1) thermal treatment of CFx material in the presence of an organic compound or carbon back as an additional carbon source to form carbon subfluorinate that is known to have better power capability, and (2) use of a LiBF4-AN/BL electrolyte in which the reactivity of metal lithium with AN is suppressed while the substantially high ionic conductivity remains.

At Lithium Mobile Power 2009, Dr. Sheng S. Zhang will report on the improvement of the discharge performance of Li/CFx batteries using these two approaches.