All lithium ion battery chemistries are not created equal – or equally safe

Valence Technology has a .pdf on their site of a study performed by engineering consulting firm Exponent, Inc. The study stress-tests the lithium ion battery formulation commonly found in battery packs for consumer electronics, where the cathode is based on a cobalt-nickel-manganese formulation. In general, this formulation goes boom and catches fire during stress tests such as a nail penetration. However, the report found that Valence’s lithium batteries which depend on a phosphate cathode “…was proven to have a greater thermal stability to withstand battery cell decomposition than batteries using lithium cobalt oxide or lithium mixed metal oxide.”

Valence’s battery technology is competing with A123’s for the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. (Last Friday’s post included a video of A123’s battery withstanding abusive stress testing.) These companies are aggressively taking on old lithium ion technology as being too volatile for automotive applications, and presenting a pretty good case for using a non-cobalt-oxide cathode.