Lithium-ion battery unboxing

A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li + ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy.

Simply storing lithium-ion batteries in the charged state also reduces their capacity (the amount of cyclable Li+) and increases the cell resistance (primarily due to the continuous growth of the solid electrolyte interface on the anode).

Most studies of lithium-ion battery aging have been done at elevated (50–60 °C) temperatures in order to complete the experiments sooner. Under these storage conditions, fully charged nickel-cobalt-aluminum and lithium-iron phosphate cells lose ca. 20% of their cyclable charge in 1–2 years.

Typically, the charge is terminated at 3% of the initial charge current. In the past, lithium-ion batteries could not be fast-charged and needed at least two hours to fully charge. Current-generation cells can be fully charged in 45 minutes or less.

To reduce these risks, many lithium-ion cells (and battery packs) contain fail-safe circuitry that disconnects the battery when its voltage is outside the safe range of 3–4.2 V per cell, or when overcharged or discharged.

More specifically, Li-ion batteries enabled portable consumer electronics, laptop computers, cellular phones, and electric cars. Li-ion batteries also see significant use for grid-scale energy storage as well as military and aerospace applications. Lithium-ion cells can be manufactured to optimize energy or power density.