Nanostructured Electrodes for High Energy Lithium Batteries

Future portable power requirements for DoD will demand greater specific energy and power from future lithium battery technology. It is expected that in order to meet future power requirements, lithium batteries will need to exhibit sustained specificenergies of >400Wh/kg and have pulse power capability of >2kW/kg @ 100Wh/kg. These requirements cannot be met by conventional batteries or through extrapolation of the capabilities of conventional systems. Clearly new materials need to be developed tomeet these stringent future requirements.Nanomaterials offer a new exciting alternative to the standard materials traditionally used for fabrication of batteries. This proposal deals with a novel approach to the use of nanomaterials in the electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. A laboratoryeffort in which we synthesize and characterize these materials and fabricate electrodes from them is proposed. Electrochemical characterization of the novel electrodes to determine the specific energy of simple one-cell batteries will also beaccomplished. Our goal is to demonstrate a cell with a specific energy >200Wh/kg. A cost analysis of the materials preparation will culminate the proposed effort. A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan (www.batteries.frost.com ), World Markets for Rechargeable Batteries for Mobile IT and Telecommunication Devices, details the fact that this industry generated revenues of $2.78 billion in 2000 and is projected tosurge to $4.68 billion by 2007. Development of a very high energy lithium battery would make this the dominant system in this burgeoning market.