Low Cost Production of Carbon Monofluoride (CFx) for Lithium Batteries

Li/CFx primary batteries are considered to be a superior choice for military applications that require long life, light weight and very low self-discharge. The high cost of current carbon monofluoride materials, however, adds significantly to the total cost of the battery. Reactive Innovations, LLC (RIL) proposes to develop a method to produce CFx materials with over a 50% cost saving. The process is based on a novel rapid diffusion method that will reduce fabrication time, increase production rate, and ultimately provide a significant cost savings to the military. In the Phase I program, RIL will build a prototype reactor and produce 100 grams of CFx material demonstrating feasibility of the technology. Comparable electrochemical performance to state-of-the-art CFx materials in lithium cells will be demonstrated in the Phase I. In the Phase II program, RIL will scale up the CFx production to multi-kilogram level, demonstrate a minimum cost savings of 50%, examine stability, and fabricate D-cell batteries with the generated CFx powder in collaboration with a battery manufacturing partner.