Lithium batteries components

Uses. The largest use of lithium metal is in the production of organometaUic alkyl and aryl lithium compounds by reactions of lithium dispersions with the corresponding organohaHdes. Lithium metal is also used in organic syntheses for preparations of alkoxides and organosilanes, as weU as for reductions. Other uses for the metal include fabricated lithium battery components and manufacture of lithium alloys. It is also used for production of lithium hydride and lithium nitride. 

J.P. Guptil, Disposal of Lithium Batteries and the Potential for Recycling of Lithium Battery Components, presented at the 5th International Seminar on Battery Waste Management, Deerfield Beach, FL, November 1993. 

Irish D. E., Deng Z., Odziemkowski M. Raman spectroscopic and electrochemical studies of lithium battery components, J. Power Sources 1995, 54, 28-33. 

Lithium Bromide. Lithium biomide [7550-35-8] LiBi, is piepaied from hydiobiomic acid and lithium carbonate oi lithium hydroxide. The anhydrous salt melts at 550°C and bods at 1310°C. Lithium bromide is a component of the low melting eutectic electrolytes ia high temperature lithium batteries. 

Lithium Iodide. Lithium iodide [10377-51 -2/, Lil, is the most difficult lithium halide to prepare and has few appHcations. Aqueous solutions of the salt can be prepared by carehil neutralization of hydroiodic acid with lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. Concentration of the aqueous solution leads successively to the trihydrate [7790-22-9] dihydrate [17023-25-5] and monohydrate [17023-24 ] which melt congmendy at 75, 79, and 130°C, respectively. The anhydrous salt can be obtained by carehil removal of water under vacuum, but because of the strong tendency to oxidize and eliminate iodine which occurs on heating the salt ia air, it is often prepared from reactions of lithium metal or lithium hydride with iodine ia organic solvents. The salt is extremely soluble ia water (62.6 wt % at 25°C) (59) and the solutions have extremely low vapor pressures (60). Lithium iodide is used as an electrolyte ia selected lithium battery appHcations, where it is formed in situ from reaction of lithium metal with iodine. It can also be a component of low melting molten salts and as a catalyst ia aldol condensations. 

Electronic and Electrical Applications. Sulfolane has been tested quite extensively as the solvent in batteries (qv), particularly for lithium batteries. This is because of its high dielectric constant, low volatUity, exceUent solubilizing characteristics, and aprotic nature. These batteries usuaUy consist of anode, cathode polymeric material, aprotic solvent (sulfolane), and ionizable salt (145—156). Sulfolane has also been patented for use in a wide variety of other electronic and electrical appHcations, eg, as a coil-insulating component, solvent in electronic display devices, as capacitor impregnants, and as a solvent in electroplating baths (157—161). 

According to the Marcus theory [64] for outer-sphere reactions, there is good correlation between the heterogeneous (electrode) and homogeneous (solution) rate constants. This is the theoretical basis for the proposed use of hydrated-electron rate constants (ke) as a criterion for the reactivity of an electrolyte component towards lithium or any electrode at lithium potential. Table 1 shows rate-constant values for selected materials that are relevant to SE1 formation and to lithium batteries. Although many important materials are missing (such as PC, EC, diethyl carbonate (DEC), LiPF6, etc.), much can be learned from a careful study of this table (and its sources). 

Shredded circuit boards. Circuit boards are metal boards that hold computer chips, thermostats, batteries, and other electronic components. Circuit boards can be found in computers, televisions, radios, and other electronic equipment. When this equipment is thrown away, these boards can be removed and recycled. Whole circuit boards meet the definition of scrap metal, and are therefore exempt from hazardous waste regulation when recycled. On the other hand, some recycling processes involve shredding the board. Such shredded boards do not meet the exclusion for recycled scrap metal. In order to facilitate the recycling of such materials, U.S. EPA excluded recycled shredded circuit boards from the definition of solid waste, provided that they are stored in containers sufficient to prevent release to the environment, and are free of potentially dangerous components, such as mercury switches, mercury relays, nickel-cadmium batteries, and lithium batteries. 

An example of a layer structure mixed conductor is provided by the cathode material L CoC used in lithium batteries. In this solid the ionic conductivity component is due to the migration of Li+ ions between sheets of electronically conducting C0O2. The production of a successful mixed conductor by doping can be illustrated by the oxide Cei-jPxx02- Reduction of this solid produces oxygen vacancies and Pr3+ ions. The electronic conductivity mechanism in these oxides is believed to be by way of electron hopping between Pr4+ and Pr3+, and the ionic conductivity is essentially vacancy diffusion of O2- ions. 

The electronic circuit of the safety sensor consists of a p-type silicon electrode, an LED, a resistor, two 3 V lithium batteries, and a platinum wire as a counter electrode, connected in series, as shown in the right part of Fig. 10.7. These components are assembled in a pen-like housing, optimized to measure even thin layers of liquid on a flat surface, as shown in the left part of Fig. 10.7. This configuration is advantageous if a puddle, observed for example under a wet bench or other equipment, is to be analyzed. 

Both batteries and fuei cells utilize controlled chemical reactions in which the desired process occurs electrochemically and all other reactions including corrosion are hopefully absent or severely kinetically suppressed. This desired selectivity demands careful selection of the chemical components including their morphology and structure. Nanosize is not necessarily good, and in present commercial lithium batteries, particle sizes are intentionally large. All batteries and fuel cells contain an electropositive electrode (the anode or fuel) and an electronegative electrode (the cathode or oxidant) between which resides the electrolyte. To ensure that the anode and cathode do not contact each other and short out the cell, a separator is placed between the two electrodes. Most of these critical components are discussed in this thematic issue. 

An ideal electrolyte solute for ambient rechargeable lithium batteries should meet the following minimal requirements (1) It should be able to completely dissolve and dissociate in the nonaqueous media, and the solvated ions (especially lithium cation) should be able to move in the media with high mobility. (2) The anion should be stable against oxidative decomposition at the cathode. (3) The anion should be inert to electrolyte solvents. (4) Both the anion and the cation should remain inert toward the other cell components such as separator, electrode substrate. 

Since a high dielectric constant and low viscosity usually cannot be integrated into a single solvent, a solvent mixture, usually binary with one of the components selected for e and the other for tj, was used to formulate electrolytes for lithium batteries with the hope that a balance between these two properties could be arrived at via such mixing. " The concept was rapidly accepted by researchers of the 1980s, usually using cyclic carbonates for their high e and linear or cyclic ethers for their low... 

There is not too much information available on the battery separator market in the literature. It is estimated that about 30% of the rechargeable lithium battery market or 1.5 billion is the size of the battery materials or components market. Battery separators for lithium batteries are about a 330 million market within the total battery components market. ° Recently, the Freedonia Group has reported that the U.S. demand for battery separators will increase to 410 million in 2007 from 237 million in 1977 and 300 million in 2002, respectively. ... 

At the present time, a large number of spent batteries are disposed of directly into the urban waste stream without proper controls. In addition to the most common systems such as zinc-carbon, alkaline manganese and nickel-cadmium, these now include, at an increasing rate, nickel-metal hydride and lithium cells. Such disposal is of serious concern because of the possible effects of battery components on the environment. Consequently, most countries are now evolving policies for collection and recycling. The majority of lead-acid batteries are recycled, but the number of recycling plants in operation worldwide for other battery systems is still very small due to the unfavourable economic balance of such operations (see Table A3.1). Some of the procedures for the disposal and recycling of battery materials are now briefly described. 

As discussed above, LiPF6 and LiBF4 decompose to form HF in nonaqueous electrolyte solution. In addition, HF is often used as a fluorinated agent or a reaction medium when fluorine compounds are prepared. A trace of HF possibly remains in the salts and dissolved in nonaqueous electrolyte solution. Usually, HF was a typical undesirable species for battery system, but its function was not understood well before. Recently, a lot of reports have been published to discuss several chemical reactions of HF with the components contained in rechargeable lithium batteries. A very interesting behavior has been observed on lithium metal. 

A further interesting effect discovered in our laboratories is that the addition of low levels of a second component, or dopant ion, can lead to significant increases in the ionic conductivity [6, 30, 31]. Typically these dopant species, for example, Li, OH , and H" ", are much smaller than the organic ions of the matrix, and since the relaxation times characterizing the motion of these ions are more rapid than those of the bulk matrix itself, these materials may represent a new class of fast ion conductor. The dopant ion effect can be used to design materials for specific applications, for example, Li+ for lithium batteries and H /OH for fuel cells or other specific sensor applications. Finally, we have recently discovered that this dopant effect can also be apphed to molecular plastic crystals such as succinonitrile [32]. Such materials have the added advantage that the ionic conductivity is purely a result of the dopant ions and not of the solvent matrix itself. 

Switching to lithium-alloy negative electrodes, some voltage loss must be noted. LiAl has Uu = -1-385 mV, Li4.5Pb has Uu = 388 mV. Entries 18-20 in Table 10(b) represent three examples of rechargeable cells, which have been, at least temporarily, commercialized. The first (No. 18) is due to a lithium alloy/carbon black battery conunercialized by the Matsushita Co. [248]. The lithium alloy components are Pb -I- Cd -I- Bi -h Sn (Wood s alloy). Button cells in the range 0.3 to 2.5 mAh were offered. The electrolyte was LiC104 in an unknown solvent. The practical energy densities, 2Wh/kg, were rather low. The c.b. positive electrode acts as a double... 

Lithium metal is also a component of certain kinds of batteries. A battery is a device for converting chemical energy into electrical energy. Lithium batteries are much lighter than the familiar lead and sulfuric acid batteries used in many cars and tmcks. They also reduce the use of toxic lead and cadmium. Lithium batteries are used in products such as... 

Hexamethoxycyclotriphosphazene has been used as component in a flame-retardant formulation for lithium batteries. Flame retardant cotton could be obtained by treatment of cotton with N3P3(NhCH20H)6. Cyclophospha-zene-containing flame retardant formulations have been described. as well as the use of cyclic and polymeric phosphazenes in processing of silver halide photographic materials. 

ADAM HELLER heads the Electronic Materials Research Department at AT T Bell Laboratories. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He authored 102 papers and holds 30 patents in semiconductor electro-chemistry, lithium batteries, liquid lasers, and electronic materials. His current research interests include transparent metals, interconnection of microelectronic components, materials for microelectronic devices and their processing, and hydrogen-evolving solar cells. 

Prior to the processing of any lithium battery for recycling, the battery s material safety data sheet should be reviewed, and, if necessary, a complete analysis should be performed to determine the waste products. Components and chemicals are unique to each manufacturer and not each type of lithium battery. Many are similar but none are identical. Compoimds that can cause serious concern if overlooked include chrome, arsenic, fluorine, mercury, organic solvents, asbestos, lithium, and others. At the end of this chapter are two typical battery analyses performed by Toxco Inc., exemplifying the... 

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