Overview of ENEA's projects on lithium batteries

The increasing need of high performance batteries in various small-scale and large-scale applications (portable electronics, notebooks, palmtops, cellular phones, electric vehicles, UPS, load levelling) in Italy is motivating the R&D efforts of various public and private organizations. Research of Lithium batteries in Italy goes back to the beginning of the technological development of primary and secondary Lithium systems with national know-how spread in various academic and public institutions with a few private stakeholders. In the field of Lithium polymer batteries, ENEA has been dedicating significant efforts in almost two decades to promote and carry out basic R&D and pre-industrial development projects. In recent years, three major national projects have been performed and coordinated by ENEA in cooperation with some universities, governmental research organizations and industry. In these projects novel polymer electrolytes with ceramic additives, low cost manganese oxide-based composite cathodes, environmentally friendly process for polymer electrolyte, fabrication processes of components and cells have been investigated and developed in order to fulfill long-term needs of cost-effective and highly performant lithium polymer batteries. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.