High Discharge Capacity Lithium Battery

An electrochemical battery cell comprising a housing;

• a negative electrode, a positive electrode and an electrolyte disposed within the housing;
• and a separator disposed between the negative and positive electrodes;
• wherein:
• (a) the housing comprises a cylindrical container with an integral closed bottom end, an initially open top end, a side wall extending between the bottom and top ends and a cover disposed in the top end to close the cell;
• (b) the negative electrode is in the form of a strip with two opposing major surfaces and comprises metallic lithium;
• (c) the positive electrode is in the form of a strip with two opposing major surfaces and comprises an active material mixture, the active material comprising greater than 50 weight percent iron disulfide;
• (d) the electrolyte comprises one or more salts dissolved in a nonaqueous organic solvent;
• (e) the negative and positive electrodes and the separator form a spiral wound cylindrical electrode assembly, with a radial outer surface disposed adjacent an inner surface of the container side wall;
• (f) the electrode assembly has an interfacial volume;
• (g) the positive electrode has an interfacial capacity;
• (h) a ratio of the positive electrode interfacial capacity to the electrode assembly interfacial volume is at least 710 mAh/cm3;
• and
• (h) the separator is a microporous membrane comprising polyethylene, with a machine direction and a transverse direction, an average thickness less than 22 μm and a tensile stress of at least 1.0 kgf/cm in both the machine direction and the transverse direction.

An electrochemical battery cell comprising a housing;

• a negative electrode, a positive electrode and an electrolyte disposed within the housing;
• and a separator disposed between the negative and positive electrodes;
• wherein:
• (a) the cell is a cylindrical FR6 type Li/FeS2 cell with a spiral wound electrode assembly having an electrode assembly interfacial volume;
• (b) the cell has an interfacial capacity of at least 3500 mAh;
• (c) the separator is a microporous membrane comprising polyethylene and has an average thickness less than 22 μm, a tensile stress of at least 2.0 kgf/cm in both a machine direction and a transverse direction, a dielectric breakdown voltage of at least 2400 volts, a maximum effective pore size of 0.08 μm to 0.20 μm and a BET specific surface area of 4.0 to 15 m2/g.

An electrochemical battery cell comprising a housing;

• a negative electrode, a positive electrode and an electrolyte disposed within the housing;
• and a separator disposed between the negative and positive electrodes;
• wherein:
• (a) the cell is a cylindrical FR6 type Li/FeS2 cell with a spiral wound electrode assembly having an electrode assembly interfacial volume;
• (b) the separator is a microporous membrane comprising polyethylene and has an average thickness less than 22 μm, a tensile stress of at least 2.0 in both a machine direction and a transverse direction, a dielectric breakdown voltage of at least 2400 volts and a maximum effective pore size of 0.08 μm to 0.20 μm;
• (c) the positive electrode comprises an active material comprising at least 95 weight percent iron disulfide;
• and
• (d) the cell is capable of providing a discharge capacity of at least 2950 mAh when discharged at 200 mA continuously to 1.0 volt and a discharge capacity of at least 2600 mAh when discharged at 1000 mA continuously to 1.0 volt.

An FR6 or FR03 electrochemical cell comprising:

• a cylindrical housing;
• an electrolyte consisting essentially of a lithium salt dissolved in:
• (i) an acyclic ether, (ii) 1,3-dioxolane and (iii) an optional amount of 3,5-dimethylisoxazole;
• a negative electrode consisting essentially of lithium or lithium alloyed with aluminum;
• a positive electrode with more interfacial capacity and input capacity relative to the negative electrode, the positive electrode further comprising iron disulfide coated on a current collector having a thickness of no greater than about 25 microns;
• an amorphous, biaxially-oriented microporous membrane separator having a thickness between about 16 and 22 microns, a dielectric breakdown voltage of at least 2000 volts and a tensile strength between 1000 kgf/cm2 and 1500 kfg/cm2;
• wherein the negative electrode, the positive electrode and the separator are a spirally wound into an electrode assembly with a void volume of no more than about 0.452 cubic centimeters per centimeter height of electrode assembly;
• and
• wherein, at approximately 50% discharge of the cell, temperature of the cell does not exceed 170° C. during Impact Test.