A thin layer, solid-state, primary Li�Ag2CrO4 polymer battery

Abstract

The majority of lithium polymer batteries under development use intercalation compounds as cathode materials [1]. The lithium-intercalation compound combination benefits from high cyclability, but suffers from sloping charge and discharge voltage profiles. In previous work we have described some new types of lithium polymer batteries based on nonintercalation cathode materials which involved LilAg2WO 4 or LilCuWO4 couples [2]. The use of these electrochemical systems in combination with a highlyconducting polymer electrolyte membrane, allowed the fabrication of thin-layer, laminated batteries having very interesting features, such as flat, highvoltage discharge curves, high-rate discharge capability and a limited but significant cycling life. Considering these promising results, we have extended the study by considering the LilAg2CrO4 electrode system, which, although used in liquid electrolyte batteries [3], to our knowledge has never been tested in solid-state, lithium polymer electrolyte batteries. Silver chromate is expected to be more promising cathode material than silver tungstate both in terms of cost and of specific capacity. The results describing the fabrication of this new type of LilAg2CrO 4 polymer battery and its electrochemical evaluation, are illustrated and discussed in this work.