130 Engineering Chemistry

charged regularly. The alloys are also resistant to oxidation and corrosion and
high reactivity. The battery is provided with resealable wents for safety.
The cell reagtion during discharge:
At the anode: MH + OH- M + H20 + e-
At the cathode: NiOOH + + e- + OH-
The net cell reaction: MH + NiOOH —5 M +
The cell provides potential range from 1.25 V to 1.35 V. The above reactions are
rcvcrsed while charging.
Advantages
(i) The cell has high capacity, long cycle life and shelf life and fast recharging.
(ii) The battery do not use poisonous substances like cadmium and thus environment
friendly.
(iii) The design of the battery is compact and sealed, so maintenance required
nummum.
Disadvantages
Nickel-cadmium battery has better performance effciency as compared to this battery-
and restricts its applications.
Applications
The metal hydride batteries are used in consumer devices like cellphones, computers,r
etc. It is specially designed for electrically run automobiles.
(C) Lithium Batteries
Towards the end of twentieth century the electronic gadgets acquired a miniature size
for easy operations and portability. These gadgets demanded small sized batteries with
high energy density, high energy efficiency, high voltage and long life cycle. The battery •
researches led to the emergence of lithium as a better option to be used as a battery?
material for anode because of its advantageous characteristics like light weight, low
electrode potential, high electrochemical equivalence (3.86 Ah g-l) and good electrical
conductivity.
There is a range of lithium batteries being used extensively as high performance
primary and secondary betteries. These batteries can offer voltage up to 4 V compared to
I .5 to 2 V potential offered by usual batteries. The different lithium battery systems use
lithium as anodic material, however, cathodic active material and choice of electrolyte
offers variation in cell potential. As lithium has high reactivity towards water, non-Q
aqueous electrolytes are to be used in such batteries.
Classification
Based on the native of cathode material, lithium primary cells are classified as:
(i) Soluble cathode cell
In such type of cells, cathodic material either dissolve in the electrolyte or are in the
form of electrolyte solvents. The material is generally in the form of liquid or gas.
Example —Lithium-thionyl chloride cell, Li-SOC12cell.
(ii) Solid cathode cell
These cells use solids as cathodic material such as V20s, MnOz, CuS, CuO, Fe S
etc.
 Conversion and Storage of Electrochemical Energy
tat
(iii)Solid electrolyte cell
such cells solid electrolyte is used as cath«iic material like— PSS, ete
F:'Advantages of Lithium ion Batteries
Lithiumion batteries have several advantages:
F(l) They are generally much lighter than other of rechargeable batteries the
same size. The electrodes of a lithium ion battery are made of light lithium
and carbon. Lithium is also a highly reactive element, meaning that a let of etkAv
can be stored in its atomic bonds. lhis translates into a high energy density
for lithium batteries. This means that for their size or weight they can store more
energy than other rechargeable batteries. A typical lithium ion battery can store SO
watt hours of electricity in I kg of battery against 25 'aatt hours per kg of lead-acid
battery have a lower self discharge rate.
(2) Lithium ion batteries hold their charge for longer duration. A lithium ion battery
pack loses only about 5% of its charge per month compared to a 20% loss month
for NiMH battery.
(3) These batteries operate at higher voltages than other rechareeable batteries t»ieally
about 3-7 V for lithium ion vs 1.2V for NiMH or NiCd batteries.Ims means a
single cell can often be used rather than multiple NiMH or NiCd cells
(4) Lithium ion batteries can handle hundreds ofchareeidischarge cycles.
(5) They have no memory effect, which means that you do not have to completely
discharge them before recharging, as with some other battery chemistries.
(6) Lithium ion batteries can be formed into a wide variety of shapes and sizes so as
to emciently fill available space in the devices they power.
Disadvantages of Lithium ion Batteries
(I) Lithium ion batteries are more expensive than similar capacity NiMH or NiCd
batteries because Li-ion batteries are much more complex to manufacture
f' (2) These batteries actually include special circuitry to protect the battery from damage
due to overcharging or undercharging.
(3) These cells have poor cycle life, i.e. upon every (rekharge deposits are formed
inside the electrolyte that inhibit lithium ion transport, resulting in the capacity
of the cell to diminish. The increase in intemal r«istance affects the cell's abilitv
to deliver current, thus the problem is more pronounced in high crimentthan low
current applications.
(4) If you completely discharge a lithium-ion battery it is ruined-
(5) They are extremely sensitive to high temperatures.The degradation increases at
high temperature.
These batteriesare not available in standard cells siz« (AA, C and D) like other
batteries. Hence a specific design of charger is required to accommodate the
particular size.
(7) The internal resistance of these batteries is comparatively high, which årrther
increases with both cycling and chronological age. Rising intemal resistance causes
the voltage at the terminals to drop under load, reducing the maximum current that
can be drawn from them.
132 Engineering Chemistry

(8) Li-ion battcrics arc not as durable as Nickel batteries and can be extremely danger-cus
if mistreated. They may explode if overheated or if charged to an excessively high
voltage,
(9) They may bc irreversibly damagcd, if discharged below a certain voltage.
( O)Usc of safety devices and improved electrode designs may greatly reduce the risk
of explosion but will increase the cost.
(D) Lithium-Mangancsc Dioxide Cell
Lithium-Mangancsc dioxide cell is a solid cathode lithium cell with lithium as anode
and as cathode. As lithium is reactive towards water so non-aqeuous electrolyte
like solution of lithium halide in propylene, carbonate, dimethoxyethane,ether or
thionyl chloride is used for the purpose. The outline design of the button cell is shown
in Fig. 4.9.
As shown, a non-woven polypropyleneseparator is used to separate the active
materials of two electrodes.The cell is designed with variety of configurationslike
button, bobbin, coin, cylindrical, prismatic or spirally bound. The cell is sealed with can
acting as the cathode terminal and cap of the can serving as anode terminal.
The cell reactions are:
At anode : Li Li+ + e-
At cathode : Mn02 + Li++ e- LiMn02
The net cell reaction : Li + Mn02 LiMn02
Lithium ion enters into the crystal lattice of Mn02 and reduces Mn02 (Mn IV) into
LiMn02 (Mn Ill) generating a potential of 3.0 V and an energy density of 230 Wh/•
Kg.
Applications
The cell is effectively used in watches, calculators, cameras, toys and many other
consumer devices.
It is also used as long time memory back up on account of its good shelf life.

Negative eledrode (Li)

Anode cap collector
Insulating packing

Cathode can Organic electrolyte Postive electrode (MnO:)

and separator
Fig. 4.9: Lithium-Mn02 Button Cell