4. Electrolytes

4.1 Introduction

The choice of electrolyte for a lithium battery is not a simple problem, and is still the subject of considerable research. First and foremost, the compound must have the following general characteristics:

• be compatible with the various cell components;

• be thermally and electrochemically stable (between 0 and 5 V);

• have sufficient ionic conductivity (> 10 ^–3 S/cm over a wide temperature range on either side of ambient temperature, typically from – 20 to +60 ˚C);

• finally, as will become clear in the following lines, during its reaction with the anode, lead to the formation...