Expected development of chemical power sources

Abstract

Research in chemical power sources has progressed appreciably as a result of considerable material and mental investment in the improvement of the specific characteristics of applied power sources during the last 25 30 years. Taking this into consideration, we have to admit that wide-ranging practical application of fundamentally new power source systems has not taken place either in the field of accumulators or in that of fuel cells. The most important development has taken place in the field of primary elements, where elements using the lithium electrode have come into general use much more quickly than was expected. This fact forces the developers to investigate the technical and economic requirements, the fulfilment of which makes successful research possible and promotes the selection of the production-ready constructions. Taking into consideration that the technical requirements and different points of view have already been investigated many times by a number of researchers, the aim of the present work is to try to investigate the different power sources from the point of view of the user groups and then to predict the trends in development.