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Feasibility of polyaniline electrodes for lithium titanate based energy storage devices

University of British Columbia

A long lasting energy storage device with energy density rivalling batteries would be very useful in many applications, especially ones where device replacement is difficult or expensive. Devices based on lithium titanate electrodes are considered promising in this regard, as lithium titanate electrodes have very long cycle lives. In this thesis, the feasibility of using the conducting polymer polyaniline in conjunction with a lithium titanate electrode to build a battery-supercapacitor combination energy storage device is considered, since polyaniline is also expected to have a high cycle life, due to its supercapacitor-like charge storage mechanism. Various methods for fabricating a polyaniline electrode are considered, and the deposition of polyaniline onto a stainless steel substrate from an aqueous solution was used. The polyaniline electrode, upon being tested in a non-aqueous solution containing lithium ions, was found to have a specific capacitance and a specific capacity of roughly 220 F/g and 85 F/g respectively. Nuclear magnetic resonance tests were used to find that the lithium ions do not dope the polyaniline and drive its oxidation state changes; therefore, the electrolyte in the proposed device must accommodate all the lithium ions emitted from the lithium titanate electrode. A simulation is presented, based on experimental data from each electrode tested separately, which estimates the energy density of the complete device to be 22.8 Wh/kg and the cost to be $560/kWh. This energy density is more than two-thirds that of a lead-acid battery and the cost is competitive with lithium-ion batteries, so the device is considered viable in applications where long-lasting devices are of utmost importance.

Text

2011-06-17

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35547

Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/