Development of lithium-thionyl chloride batteries for centaur

✍ Scribed by Gerald Halpert; Harvey Frank; Ralph Lutwack

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 300 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0378-7753
• DOI: 10.1016/0378-7753(88)80022-3

✦ Synopsis

Lithium-thionyl chloride (Li-SOC12) primary cells and batteries have received considerable attention over the last several years because of their high theoretical specific energy and energy density. The development of the technology has been supported by the NASA Hq., Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the past several years. The objective is to develop a 300 W h kg-' cell capable of operation at the C/2 rate and active storage life for 5 -10 years. This technology would replace other primary cell technologies in NASA applications, mainly the silver-zinc ( Ag-Zn) batteries presently in use. The Li-SOCl* system with its projected specific energy (300 W h kg-') and lengthy activated storage life (10 years) exceeds the capabilities of the Ag-Zn system (100 W h kg-' and active storage life of 3 -6 months). It also has a significantly lower projected cost.