What is a lithium-ion battery?
A lithium-ion battery is a type of battery. (1)
What do lithium-ion batteries do?
Lithium batteries rely on lithium ions to store energy by creating an electrical potential difference between the negative and positive poles of the battery. (2)
The ‘separator’ divides the two sides of the battery and blocks the electrons while still allowing the lithium ions to pass through. (2)
During the charging phase, lithium ions move from the positive side of the battery to the negative side through the separator. (2)
While the battery discharges, the ions move in the reverse direction. (2)
These batteries use lithium compounds for an electrode and are called lithium ion batteries because of the way they utilize the flow of ions away from a lithium compound to store energy. The category of lithium ion batteries actually covers a number of different chemistries, each of which have slightly different characteristics. The two most popular types of lithium ion batteries are lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, or NMC, batteries and lithium iron phosphate, or LFP (for iron’s chemical sign of Fe).
NMC batteries tend to be more power dense (i.e., smaller for the same storage capacity), while LFP batteries tend to have longer lifetimes. (1)
What does a lithium-ion battery contain?
lithium ions (2)
An insulating layer called a “separator” divides the two sides of the battery. (2)
What are types of lithium-ion batteries?
lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries (1,2)
lithium iron phosphate (LFP) (for iron’s chemical sign of Fe) (1,2)
lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) batteries (2)
lithium manganese oxide (LMO) batteries (2)
lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) batteries (2)
lithium titanate (LTO) (2)
What contains lithium-ion batteries?
cell phones (2)
laptop computers (2)
cordless power tools (2)
electric vehicles (2)
Resources
1. https://www.energysage.com/energy-storage/storage-101/types-of-batteries/
2. https://dragonflyenergy.com/types-of-lithium-batteries-guide/
