Low Temperature Performance of the Rechargeable Lithium-Copper Chloride Battery

Rechargeable Li/CuCl₂, batteries using nonflammable LiAlCl₄/SO₂, electrolytes can deliver over 200 deep cycles at ∼23°C at a depth corresponding to 175 Whr/kg in D size cells without capacity or performance losses. The low temperature discharge performance was investigated in glass enclosed flat plate cells with 2.0 x 3.0 cm electrodes. The low temperature discharge utilizations obtained at 1.0 mA/cm² (≈C/9 rate) for Li/CuCl₂ cells at -20, -30, -40, -50, -60 and -70°C to a 2.50 V discharge cut-off were 0.896, 0.896, 0.589, 0.367, 0.202 and 0.157 e^-/CuCl₂ respectively. The above utilizations correspond to specific energies of 149, 144, 87, 56, 30.6 and 23.7 Whr/kg in the same order.