Lithium Ion Battery

Lithium-Ion Battery

As the industrial and technological world continue to be developed, more rechargeable and higher capacity batteries are increasingly required to be produced. Lithium-ion battery is the most common battery nowadays, because they’re some of the most energetic rechargeable batteries available. So the question is, what are the impacts of lithium-ion batteries on the community and the environment? In this essay, the advantages and limitations of lithium-ion batteries will be included in regards to the impact of lithium-ion batteries on the environment as well as communities. Even though lithium-ion batteries do have some impacts on the environment, but it’s contribution made to the community is remarkably more.

The first piece of lithium-ion battery was introduced in 1990 by Sony, so it only has a ten years history. Now lithium-ion batteries are in two different forms on the market, one is liquid lithium-ion battery, and another one has an aluminum or steel packaging. The mass production of lithium-ion batteries also caused an increase in the extraction of brine. Brine is a sodium chloride solution in water, which is also called “salt water”. Generally natural brine occurs are found under the sea or in salt lakes, it was found that when a brine soaked cloth and two metals that were arranged in a circuit produces an electric current and the brine would increase the electrolyte conductivity when a metal wire was connected to the battery, which acts as a conductor. Lithium concentrations are mostly found in brines, minerals, and clays, and the largest production countries of lithium are Chile and Bolivia. Lithium is just like any other alkali metal, it is Highly reactive and flammable. It is stored in oil and then processed for specific purposes. In order to construct lithium-ion batteries, the process was first developed in Japan with very heavy automated equipments with robots transferring assembled materials from one step to another, and Chinese companies developed a way to reduce labor costs.

A lithium-ion battery is essential for all areas of growth in our world. The lithium-ion

Diagram 1: Lithium ion battery diagram battery is one of the newest and fastest developing technologies in the battery world. They are most common in consumer electronics for their high energy density, no memory effect such as the need to fully discharge before recharging, and only a slow loss of battery when not in use. In a lithium-ion cell, the electrodes are made from compounds which allows lithium to move through. Since lithium has a high electrochemical, the most common use for lithium-ion are in battery pack forms. The principle of how general batteries works is that it converts the chemical energy directly to electrical energy as shown in diagram 1 (Lithium Ion Battery, 2012). When lithium moves into the electrodes it is called migration,