Recycling of Coated Plastics Used in Automotive, IT and Commercial Applications

65737 Commercially viable hybrid and electric vehicles require improved batteries that offer greater capacity, cycle life, and power capability with reduced size and weight. The most energy dense rechargeable batteries currently available are Li-ion batteries, yet the high cost of these batteries has prevented their commercial use. A significant cost driver of these batteries is the cost of the lithium salt in the electrolyte. This project will utilize low-cost starting materials to produce low-cost lithium salts for use in Li-ion batteries. In Phase I, a new class of lithium salts was developed for Li-ion batteries. The salts offer the potential for significant cost saving over the current industry standard and showed good performance characteristics including conductivities as high as 4.8 mS/cm, electrochemical stability from 0 V to > 4.5 V, excellent solubility, and compatibility with standard Li-ion cell electrode materials. Phase II will scale up the synthesis of the lithium salts developed in Phase I and continue the investigation of other related salts. The salts will be tested in 7 Ah or greater size Li-ion cells to evaluate performance and to demonstrate their utility in electric and hybrid electric vehicle applications. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The lower cost Li salt technology should make Li-ion batteries more affordable and commercially viable in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. Other applications include computers, cell phones, and satellites.