ASSESSMENT ON THIN-FILM BATTERIES BASED ON POLYMER ELECTROLYTES .3. SPECIFIC ENERGY VERSUS SPECIFIC POWER

The feasibility of solid state polymer electrolyte batteries for applications such as the electric vehicle depends on the variation in the performance levels of the specific energy and specific power. In this paper efforts have been centered mainly on rechargeable lithium batteries with electrolyte complexes formed between polyethylene oxide and lithium salts having an ionic conductivity of 10-4 (Ω cm)-1 and V6O13 insertion cathodes. Prismatic unit cells of variable cathode thickness have been modeled and calculated results indicate that high specific energies (∼200 Wh/kg) and high specific powers (∼700 W/kg) are possible for this battery system utilizing metallic current collectors. Considerably higher values result for low density metallized plastic current collectors. © 1990.