"Lithium battery" is a type of battery that uses lithium metal or lithium alloy as the negative electrode material and uses a non-aqueous electrolyte solution. In 1912, lithium metal batteries were first proposed and studied by Gilbert N. Lewis. In the 1970s, M.S. Whittingham proposed and began researching lithium-ion batteries. Due to the very active chemical properties of lithium metal, the processing, storage, and use of lithium metal have very high environmental requirements. Therefore, lithium batteries have not been used for a long time. With the development of science and technology, lithium batteries have now become mainstream.
Lithium batteries can be roughly divided into two categories: lithium metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries do not contain lithium in a metallic state and are rechargeable. The fifth-generation lithium metal battery of rechargeable batteries was born in 1996, and its safety, specific capacity, self-discharge rate, and performance-price ratio are all superior to lithium-ion batteries. Due to its own high technical requirements, only a few countries now produce such lithium metal batteries.