Recent development of rechargeable lithium-ion cells at JPL

The objective of this work is to identify electrode materials and electrolytes for lithium-ion cells to be used in NASA´s New Millennium spacecraft and to demonstrate the advantage of this technology. Recent progress has shown that the electrode fabrication method plays an important role. The test performance of cells containing these electrodes has led to the selection of graphite anode material, LiCoO ₂ cathode material, Celgard 2500 separator, and 1M LiPF₆ in (30% EC+70% DMC) electrolyte as base line Li-ion cell materials. In addition, the evaluation of a new alternative noncarbon type anode material in Li-ion cells is also discussed. The authors also applied the Taguchi design method to assist in the identification of key cell design parameters. All of the above factors mentioned, as well as the development of low temperature Li-ion cell systems, are discussed in this paper