Solid electrolyte lithium Battery Chemistry

All commercially manufactured cells that use a solid electrolyte have a lithium anode. They perform best in low-current applications and have a very long service life. For this reason, they are used in pacemakers

LiI2—Lithium Iodine Cells

LiI2—Lithium iodine cells use solid LiI as their electrolyte and also produce LiI as the cell discharges. The cathode is poly-2-vinylpyridine (P2VP) with the following reactions:

LiI is formed in situ by direct reaction of the electrodes.

Lithium-Iron Cells

The Lithium-Iron chemistry deserves a separate section because it is one of a handful of lithium metal systems that have a 1.5 volt output (others are lithium/lead bismuthate, lithium/bismuth trioxide, lithium/copper oxide, and lithium/copper sulfide).

Recently consumer cells that use the Li/Fe have reached the market, including the Energizer. These have the advantage of having the same voltage as alkaline batteries with much more energy storage capacity, so they are called "voltage compatible" lithiums. They are not rechargeable. They have about 2.5 times the capacity of an alkaline battery of the same size, but only under high current discharge conditions (digital cameras, flashlights, motor driven toys, etc.). For small currents they don't have any advantage. Another advantage is the low self-discharge rate–10 years storage is quoted by the manufacturer. The discharge reactions are:

Both Iron sulfide and Iron disulfide are used, the FeS2 is used in the Energizer. Electrolytes are organic materials such as propylene carbonate, dioxolane and dimethoxyelthane.