Lithium–air battery
Metal–air electrochemical cell / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Lithium–air battery?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The lithium–air battery (Li–air) is a metal–air electrochemical cell or battery chemistry that uses oxidation of lithium at the anode and reduction of oxygen at the cathode to induce a current flow.[1]
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Specific energy | 40.104 MJ/kg (11,140 Wh/kg) theoretical |
---|---|
Energy density | ? J/m³ |
Specific power | 11,400 W/kg |
Nominal cell voltage | 2.91 V |
Pairing lithium and ambient oxygen can theoretically lead to electrochemical cells with the highest possible specific energy. Indeed, the theoretical specific energy of a non-aqueous Li–air battery, in the charged state with Li2O2 product and excluding the oxygen mass, is ~40.1 MJ/kg = 11.14 kWh/kg of lithium. This is comparable to the theoretical specific energy of gasoline, ~46.8 MJ/kg. In practice, Li–air batteries with a specific energy of ~6.12 MJ/kg = 1.7 kWh/kg of lithium at the cell level have been demonstrated. This is about 5 times greater than that of a commercial lithium-ion battery, and is sufficient to run a 2,000 kg electric vehicle for ~500 km (310 miles) on a single charge using 60 kg of lithium (i.e. 20.4 kWh/100 km). However, the practical power and cycle life of Li–air batteries need significant improvements before they can find a market niche.
Significant electrolyte advances are needed to develop a commercial implementation.[2] Four approaches are being considered: aprotic,[3][4][5] aqueous,[6] solid-state[7] and mixed aqueous–aprotic.[8]
A major market driver for batteries is the automotive sector. The energy density of gasoline is approximately 13 kW·h/kg, which corresponds to 1.7 kW·h/kg of energy provided to the wheels after losses. Theoretically, lithium–air can achieve 12 kW·h/kg (43.2 MJ/kg) excluding the oxygen mass. Accounting for the weight of the full battery pack (casing, air channels, lithium substrate), while lithium alone is very light, the energy density is considerably lower.[9]