For the consumer electronics industry and for battery technology, nothing better yet than a lithium-ion battery. This is the most efficient type of electric car battery technology among commercially sold products.
Why are Li-Ion batteries so good?
Let’s look at the specific reasons that motivate manufacturers to use this type of charge storage chemistry. In fact, this list will help us decide why lithium batteries are so good in mobile electronics and cars. The lithium battery packs are the best for electric cars.
- Lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries are easier to manufacture. This type of chemistry lends itself more easily to being packaged into compact flat packs (lithium polymer and more complex designs) than other chemistries.
- They are made from relatively cheap materials. If you ignore cobalt, which is a small percentage of the total mass, then lithium makes batteries economical to manufacture and affordable to buy.
- Li-Ion batteries have a higher power-to-weight ratio. And also the dimensions. In these respects, they are better than other types of batteries (energy density is higher due to the light nature of lithium).
- Lithium is only the third element in the periodic table. The element lithium comes after hydrogen and helium – it is very light.
- Lithium also has an outer electron shell. It lets a free electron through, unlike the noble gas helium, which jealously guards its electrons and doesn’t want to share them with anyone.
- Lithium-ion batteries ensure compactness. This is extremely important for phones, tablets, and laptops. Compared to other types of batteries, Li-Ion is the absolute leader at the moment.
- The voltage is 3.2-3.7V. Depending on the lithium chemistry used, this voltage makes them ideal for charging from inexpensive 5V USB sources.
- This voltage allows the use of one cell. For small devices (phones, smartwatches, and so on), nothing is more important.
Put it all together and you have a lightweight with relative affordability and the ability of chemical equipment to take deeper discharges than lead-acid chemistry – and you have a reason why these batteries are so dominant.
Lithium-ion or lithium polymer?
The average person will most likely not notice any difference between lithium ion and lithium polymer batteries when using them. However, there is a difference.
Two different technologies
- Lithium-ion is a common rechargeable battery technology that uses lithium ions for storage, where “Li-ion” without qualification is usually given for LCO cells (cobalt, like in smartphones), but there are other types (NMC, LFP, like in electric vehicles)
- Lithium-polymer is a technology for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, where “Li-Polymer” most often means the same type of LCO cell, but with a modified composition for more compact placement in a polymer case (other cathodes, and anodes are possible).
The Washington Magazine 