History of Lithium Ion Batteries

The first commercialized lithium ion battery was introduced by SONY in the year 1991, since then it dominated the power supply market for the portable electronic devices. However, it took almost 21 years to take LIB’s from laboratory to the industry.

Lithium is the lightest element and the least dense solid element (0.534 g/cm³). In general, lithium is inflammable and potentially explodes when exposed to air and especially water. It can be safely handled in electrochemical processes since it is the lightest element and also it exhibits the highest oxidation potential of any element.

            In mid of 1970, Whittingham at Exxon proposed lithium batteries with lithium metal and titanium (IV) sulfide. However, batteries with lithium metal electrodes faced serious safety measures. Since, lithium is a highly reactive material it catches fire or burns in the normal atmospheric conditions as it reacts with the air and water. Later researchers shifted their interest in investigating the lithium intercalation behavior of layered metal oxides, especially vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅). However, the complex phase transition and poor cycling performance limited its commercialization.

            In 1980’s, Good enough et.al (1980) have prepared Li_xCoO₂ (0<x〈-1) by the electrochemical extraction of lithium from the parent LiCoO₂ ordered rock-salt structure. They also reported good reversibility. Since, LiCoO₂ a stable positive electrode plays the donor role for lithium ions, it opened room for new negative electrode materials other than lithium metal.