AIST Develops Li-Cu Secondary Battery of High Power and Low Cost

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japanese independent administrative institution to advance technologies for Japanese industries, announced on Tuesday the institute succeeded in development of lithium-copper secondary battery. The battery uses metals for both negative and positive electrodes, which represents high capacity, low productive cost and easy recycle process.

The negative electrode is lithium with organic electrolyte and the positive electrode is copper with aqueous electrolyte, both of which are separated by solid electrolyte. The developed battery achieved positive electrode’s discharged capacity at 843 mAh/g, 5 times of general lithium ion battery.

Productive cost is cheaper and recycling process is easier than current lithium ion battery thanks to metal electrodes. AIST continues improvement of this new battery to adopt into cellular phones, notebook PCs and automobiles. AIST tries to raise lithium ion conductivity of solid electrolyte in order to get higher power density.

General lithium ion battery uses rare materials such as cobalt and manganese for positive electrode. In addition, productive process is complex and requires high cost.