The deposition and stripping of lithium from different substrates has
been investigated in saturated aqueous solutions of LiCl/LiOH to asses
s the possibility of developing a secondary lithium battery with high
energy density and high power density, and based on water as a solvent
. On mercury electrodes, a low catalytic activity for hydrogen evoluti
on is observed, together with a positive shift in potential on amalgam
ation. This means that lithium deposition is the predominant electrode
reaction at negative potentials. Indeed, the lithium charge recovery
at a mercury anode is 98.5%. Other practical anode materials, however,
fail to give a charge recovery anywhere close to this value. Anode ma
terials investigated include metals that alloy with lithium and materi
als that form lithium insertion compounds. Manganese dioxide appears t
o be an effective cathode material for a battery using saturated LiCl/
LiOH as the electrolyte. The positive electrode reaction at MnO2 in th
is medium is shown to be lithium insertion rather than protonation, an
d acceptable rechargeability is observed.