Development of ionic liquid-based lithium battery prototypes (original) (raw)

2012, Journal of Power Sources

The lab-scale manufacturing of Li/LiFePO 4 and Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 /LiFePO 4 stacked battery prototypes and their performance characterization are described here. The prototypes were realized in the frame of an European Project devoted to the development of greener and safer lithium batteries, based on ionic liquid electrolytes, for integration with photovoltaic panels. N-Butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (PYR 14 TFSI) and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bis(fluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (PYR 14 FSI), selected as the ionic liquids (ILs), were used to formulate the poly(ethylene oxide)-LiN(SO 2 CF 3 ) 2 -PYR 14 TFSI (PEO-LiTFSI-PYR 14 TFSI) polymer electrolyte and the LiTFSI-PYR 14 FSI liquid electrolyte, which were employed to produce lithium metal and lithium-ion prototypes, respectively. The composite electrodes for the lithium metal and lithium-ion prototypes were prepared through, respectively, a solvent-free and a water-based procedure route. The performance of the lithium battery prototypes was evaluated in terms of specific capacity, energy, cycle life and coulombic efficiency at different current densities. The results have indicated high reproducibility and the feasibility of scaling-up solvent-free, lithium batteries based on ionic liquids for low and mid rate applications such as renewable energy storage.