" The greatest electro chemical potential holder lithium batteries "

Work with the Lithium battery began in 1912 under G.N. Lewis but it was not until the early 1970s when the first non-rechargeable lithium batteries became commercially available. Lithium is the lightest of all metals, has the greatest electrochemical potential and provides the largest energy density for weight.

In many attempts to develop rechargeable batteries lithium failed due to safety issues. Because of the inherent instability of lithium metal, especially when charging, research shifted to a non-metallic battery lithium using lithium ions. Although slightly lower in energy density than lithium metal, lithium -ion is safe, provided certain precautions are met when charging and discharging.

The energy density of lithium -ion is typically twice that of the standard nickel-cadmium. There is potential for higher energy densities in the battery with metal lithium. The load characteristics are reasonably good and behave similarly to nickel-cadmium in terms of discharge. The high cell voltage of 3.6 allows battery pack designs with only one cell.

Lithium -ion is a low maintenance battery, an advantage that most other chemistries cannot claim. There is no memory and no scheduled cycling that is required to prolong the battery‘s life in some batteries except in lithium. In addition, the self-discharge is less than half compared to nickel-cadmium, making lithium -ion well suited for modern fuel gauge applications. lithium -ion cells cause little harm when disposed.

This battery in lithium is fragile and requires a protection circuit to maintain safe operation. Built into each pack is the protection circuit that limits the peak voltage of each cell during charge and the battery in metal lithium prevents the cell voltage from dropping too low on discharge. In addition, the cell temperature is monitored to prevent extremes. The maximum charge and discharge current is limited between 1C and 2C in these batteries. With these precautions in place, the possibility of metallic lithium plating occurring due to overcharge is virtually eliminated.