Lithium ion battery formulations dissected at AABC conference

So here I am today and tomorrow at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference being held this week in Long Beach. There are two tracks, lithium ion batteries and ultracapacitors, and I’m mostly staying in the lithium ion battery track, which so far is all about chemistry, and this is undoubtedly intended by fate as a penance for all the years I have avoided anything to do with chemical formulations. You know how in math there are the people who get geometry (me), and then there are the people who get algebra (me NOT)? I suggest that in engineering there are the people who get physics (me) and then there are the people who get chemistry (just guess). So here I am in a room full of people who really, really understand that the formulations of a lithium ion battery’s (LIB) capacitor and electrolyte are going to have far-reaching implications on the world’s attempt to come up with practical plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) which is really what this conference is about. There isn’t a lead-acid battery in sight.

This morning’s papers looked at which electrolytes are flammable and which aren’t. Now why, as one audience member asked, in a vehicle full of things that are highly flammable, do you care about how your battery electrolyte reacts to flame? After all, it’s replacing gasoline which is more than flammable, it’s explosive. The reason is that in a gas tank the fuel is enclosed and separated from the igniting source. In a battery, the electrolyte bathes the potential source of ignition (the electrodes) and in an ideal world you’d prefer that the electrolyte acted rather as an extinguisher. So there were several papers examining the flammability of electrolytes, and then several looking at the flammability of cathode material. (Hint: think phosphates for future winners.) Plus, there is an undercurrent of concern about IP because some of the more promising formulations are protected by patents. So I’m starting to get a very hazy feel for all of the difficulties there are in developing the perfect lithium ion battery. But the conference seems to be packed and there are many companies here that clearly understand the pot of gold that awaits the developer of the successful formulation.