A Low Cost Process to Produce Carbon Fluoride for Lithium Batteries

For soldiers communication applications that require long life, light weight and very low self-discharge, Li/(CFx)n lithium primary chemistry is considered to be a superior choice. The high cost of current carbon monofluoride materials, however, will add significantly to the total cost of the battery. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop a low cost process to produce CFx materials with a greater than 80% cost saving. PSI’s process eliminates the usage of elemental fluorine gas and operates at a lower temperature. In the Phase I program, PSI will demonstrate the feasibility of using PSI’s electrochemical fluorination process to produce CFx materials at a significantly lower cost. 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, PSI will scale up the CFx production to kilograms and D cells will be demonstrated in collaboration with a battery manufacturing partner.