Lithium Compound Powder Production

Battery customers increasingly require higher power density because of new demanding applications and missions. Higher power density is also required because of the severe space limitations imposed on battery placement. Lithium compound powders used toform the active electrodes are often the most expensive component in a battery. During current powder production practices that are energy intensive, lack of production flexibility results in much waste, driving up the cost and forcing battery designersto adapt battery design to the available powder and its associated properties instead of using powders that are optimal for the designer's purposes. As a result, current powder quality severely limits the ability of battery designers to form low costhigher power density active electrodes. Our program is focused on the development of powder production techniques to form lithium compound powders that will enable the formation of active electrodes that have more repeatable mass and chemical activity,better strength, and higher energy density. The extreme reactive nature of the compounds complicates the design of a production system and imposes special design considerations. During Phase I, a comprehensive detailed design for the prototype system willbe developed. In Phase II, a prototype apparatus will be constructed and tested. Creare's powder production approach will allow battery designers flexibility that heretofore has not been available. Optimized powder size, shape, and distributions willresult in increased power density and reduced cost. Our approach will also allow the flexible production of other highly reactive air-sensitive materials including rare earth metals, titanium, and tungsten. Powder quality control is important toprocesses ranging from hot isostatic pressing to thermal spraying.