Six Most Important Lithium-ion Battery Chemistries

Li-ion cell is one of the most important energy storage devices in today’s time. The cell has a lot of different chemistries, and the properties of these cells depend on their internal chemistry. Every single chemistry has its own pros and cons

- Sharad Bhowmick

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells provide one of the most important energy storages today. These cells are used in many electronic items including smartphones, laptops, personal portable equipment, cameras, etc. In fact, Li-ion cells have paved the way for efficient and long ranged electromobility, thus making electrical vehicles (EVs) practical for our daily commute.

Li-ion cells are secondary cells or, in other words, rechargeable cells, that is, they can be recharged by passing current in the reverse direction. Li-ion batteries are lightweight and have higher energy density than other types of rechargeable cells, thus making them suitable for energy-intensive applications where constant replenishment of energy is essential, such as in our daily electronics gadgets, EVs, home energy storage system. These are used even in applications where a large amount of energy is stored, such as grid energy storage application.

This article describes the six most common Li-ion chemistries and the advantages as well as disadvantages of each type of cell, along with their properties.

Like many other commonly available cells, Li-ion cells are made up of four components— cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator. Li-ion cells commonly use graphite at anode and an intercalated lithium compound at cathode. The capacity and voltage of a Li-ion cell is dependent on the cathode while the charge and discharge rate of a battery depends on the anode. The amount of lithium and the active material in the cathode dictates the battery capacity and voltage while the potential difference between the anode and the cathode determines the voltage of a battery.