High rate lithium/thionyl chloride bipolar battery development

The lithium/thionyl chloride (Li/SOCl2) electrochemistry is capable of providing high power and high specific power, especially under pulse discharge conditions, when cells containing thin components are arranged in a bipolar configuration. This paper describes recent work concerned with bipolar cell design, cathode evaluation, component manufacturing methods, and the assembly and testing of bipolar modules containing up to 150 cells for Sonobuoy application.