Practical Lithium Air Batteries

The Practical Lithium Air Batteries project brings together a range of academic and industrial partners with complimentary skills to work on improved lithium air battery single cells and assess their feasibility in the wider context of future battery pack and system design, compact air purification approaches and general viability for use in automotive applications. Finding an improved stable electrolyte that survives the operating conditions at the lithium air cathode is a key enabler for this technology. Thus substantial efforts will focus on synthesis and investigation of new liquid electrolytes and gels and the optimisation of electrode structures containing these often viscous media, to achieve maximum cell performance. Academic partners Queens University Belfast and Liverpool University will work on synthesising and characterising the new electrolytes, whilst Johnson Matthey Technology Centre will produce novel cathode and anode materials, optimise electrode structures and perform electrochemical testing.
The participation of Jaguar Land Rover as an end user, Air Products a component manufacturer and Axeon (a Johnson Matthey Company) will provide an applications focussed approach. These industrial partners will perform a paper feasibility study on how high performing lithium air single cells would be incorporated into automotive systems in the future, assessing the mechanical and ancillary system integration and low weight/cost/volume options for on board air purification.
The final output will assess the feasibility for lithium air battery systems to achieve a 400Wh/kg power density.