Solid State Electrochemical Cell

The invention relates to an electrochemical cell incorporating a solid electrolyte; the electrolyte comprises a complex of a polyether with lithium.

Complexes of poly(ethylene oxide) and a lithium salt have been studied and observed to have high ionic conductivities. See, for example, a paper by M. D. Armand et al presented to the 2nd International Conference on Solid Electrolytes at St. Andrews' University, UK in 1978. There is, however, interest in improving the performance of Li polymer complexes for their use as electrolytes in solid state electrochemical cells.

The invention provides a solid state electrochemical cell comprising an anode having lithium as its active material, a cathode and an electrolyte comprising a complex of a polyether with lithium, the polyether being an atactic polyether having a glass transition temperature of substantially less than 0.degree. C. and being capable of forming a complex with Li.sup.+ ions but not with Na.sup.+ ions.

The electrolytes of the invention have been found, in certain test experiments described herein, to have higher ionic conductivities than certain known Li polymer complexes. This is believed to be due to the polyethers of the invention, being atactic, i.e., having no stereo regularity, having an enhanced proportion of amorphous regions. Thus, it is believed that high ionic conductivity may occur via such amorphous regions. Moreover, because the polyether of the invention are not capable of forming complexes with Na.sup.+, it is believed that the Li.sup.+ ions in the electrolyte will be more loosely bound to the polyether than say in the case of poly(ethylene oxide), which does form complexes with Na.sup.+, thereby giving rise to higher lithium ion conductivity.

An example of a polyether useful in the invention is polyvinyl methyl ether, referred to hereinafter as PVME, which has a low glass transition temperature (-30.degree. C.) and is an atactic material with amorphous characteristics. Moreover, PVME is capable of forming complexes with Li salts such as LiClO.sub.4, e.g. by simple addition thereof, but not with Na salts such as NaSCN.

Polyethers useful in the invention may not necessarily be mechanically suitable in themselves for fabrication into electrolytes suitable for use in electrochemical cells. It may, therefore, be necessary to blend such a polyether with another material to produce appropriate mechanical properties for the above purposes. For example, PVME may be in the form of a viscous liquid at room temperature and may therefore have to be blended with another polymer such as a saturated poly(ethylene oxide)-LiClO.sub.4 complex.

Electrochemical cells of the invention may be made by methods known in the art and the electrodes may be constituted by materials known in the art. For example, the anode may be made of Li or of an alloy thereof and the cathode of an intercalation compound such as TiS.sub.2.

Several ways of carrying out the invention will be described in detail below by way of example only.

A complex of PVME, LiClO.sub.4 and poly(ethylene oxide) was prepared by addition of the above constituents in methanolic solution. The methanol was then removed under vacuum at 100.degree. C. The resulting electrolyte had a ratio of O atoms in the poly(ethylene oxide) to Li.sup.+ ions of 3.9 and had 10% by weight of the PVME in relation to the poly(ethylene oxide).

The specific ionic conductivity of the electrolyte was measured and found to be ca. 1.times.10.sup.-4 .OMEGA..sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 at 93.degree. C. This compares with a value of ca. 6.times.10.sup.-5 .OMEGA..sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 for a known poly(ethylene oxide)-LiSCN complex having a 0/Li.sup.+ ratio of 5.0 and a value of ca. 6.times.10.sup.-5 .OMEGA..sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 for a known poly(ethylene oxide)-LiBF.sub.4 complex with a 0/Li.sup.+ ratio of 4.0.

The procedure of step (i) of Example 1 was repeated except that the electrolyte produced had 50% by weight of PVME in relation to poly(ethylene oxide) and an 0/Li.sup.+ ratio of 3.8. The specific ionic conductivity was found to be ca. 10.sup.-6 .OMEGA..sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 at 25.degree. C. This is an order of magnitude higher than the value found for a known poly(ethylene oxide)-LiClO.sub.4 complex having a 0/Li.sup.+ ratio of 4.5.