Lithium ion battery chemistry

Characteristics of lithium cell chemistry

Four Components of Li-ion Battery – Cathode, Anode, Electrolyte, Separator

Li-ion batteries consist of largely four main components: cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator.

Cathode plays an important role in determining the characteristics of the battery as the battery’s capacity and voltage are determined by active material type used for cathode. The higher amount of lithium, bigger the capacity; and the bigger potential difference between cathode and anode, higher the voltage. The potential difference is small for anode depending on their type but for cathode, the potential difference is relatively high in general. As such, the cathode plays a significant role in determining the voltage of the battery.

The anode’s active material performs the role of enabling electric current to flow through the external circuit while allowing reversible absorption/emission of lithium ions released from the cathode.

Electrolyte is the component which plays this important role.
It serves as the medium that enables the movement of only lithium ions between the cathode and anode. For the electrolyte, materials with high ionic conductivity are mainly used so that lithium ions move back and forth easily.

The separator functions as a physical barrier keeping cathode and anode apart.
It prevents the direct flow of electrons and carefully lets only the ions pass through the internal microscopic hole. Therefore, it must satisfy all the physical and electrochemical conditions. Commercialized separators we have today are synthetic resin such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

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