Electrochemical Characteristics of Various Lithium-Based Anodes for Thermal Batteries

The thermal battery is primary battery used for special fields such as defense due to its high power and high reliability characteristics. As the demand for thermal battery increases, development of various thermal battery electrodes having high energy density and power density is required. Therefore, as interest in high performance anodes increases, attempts are being made on various anodes for thermal batteries. In the case of a conventional thermal battery anode (Li-Si alloy), it has difficulty in large-area because it is manufactured through a powder pressing method. For this reason, many studies on development of liquid lithium-based anodes have recently been conducted. In particular, the Li-Fe (LIFe) anodes manufactured by mixing molten lithium and iron powder, a research has been carried out significantly and some commercialized. In addition, research on lithium impregnated metal foam anode (LIMFA) that are used by impregnating molten lithium in metal foam has been actively conducted recently. The research on the manufacture and performance of lithium boron (LiB) anodes for lightening the weight of thermal battery is also being studied. In this paper, various lithium-based thermal battery anodes were fabricated and applied to improve thermal battery performance. The prepared anodes were fabricated single cells applying FeS₂ cathode, and electrolyte. The single cell was discharged at 500^oC to evaluated electrochemical properties, and performance as an anode of a thermal battery compared.