1. Lithium microbattery: principle and specific features

1.1 The benefits of lithium electrochemical systems

Among the many R&D projects currently being carried out on microbatteries, those involving systems with a lithium metal negative electrode are particularly promising.

There are three main reasons for this:

• the potential of the Li ⁺ /Li couple is the lowest of all redox couples ( E ₀ = – 3 V/ENH); lithium is in fact the most reductive element. It can be combined with any other material involving a redox couple and capable of inserting lithium, which then forms the positive electrode. The generator's potential difference can be as high as 3 to 5 V, depending on the material...