"I believe there are four different types available but the Lithium Ion Phospherous is claimed to be best."

 

Can anyone answer this question for me? Thanks in advance!

The different types of Lithium Batteries all have their upsides and downsides.

 

Lithium Ion (aka Lithium Polymer and Lithium Cobalt) have the highest energy density of 140mAh per gramme. However, they also have the lowest number of recharge cycles (as low as 200 in some cases) and are chemically somewhat unstable which will cause them to explode if abused.

 

Lithium Manganese weighs in with around 100mAh per gramme, but offers more like 500 recharge cycles.

 

Lithium Phosphorous offers a lower energy density still (although wikipedia tells me diffrent now) coupled with a lower cell voltage - However, they offer many thousands of charge cycles - People aren't sure how many yet as they're still testing, but definitely more than 1000... and maybe as many as 5000. They're also chemically stable and won't explode or catch fire if abused. Also, they are essentially a mixture of rust and mud with no harmful chemicals so it's OK to throw them away with regular garbage.

 

Lithium Titanate offer around 1/2 the energy density of normal lithium ion, but can be recharged incredibly quickly and have around 10,000 charge cycles. This is the cell chemistry used in the Toshiba Super-Charge Ion Battery (as seen on the schwinn tailwind) and in all the new electric cars coming around claiming they can be charged in 10 mins.

That should be lithium iron phosphate, the cathode being iron based.

 

All our lithium batteries are lithium-ion (li-ion), that referring to the way they work.

 

When you see Cobalt or Manganese added, that's the cathode basis, like the iron in the first one above

 

When you see the word Polymer added, that's just a type of cell content construction.

 

First of those along was li-ion cobalt, worked well and said to be capable of 500 charges but proved to be prone to causing fires so discontinued.

 

The safer li-ion manganese replaced it but at first suffered from inadequate current supply capability, this now cured. Again said to be good for 500 charges.

 

The latest form of these uses the Polymer cell content construction and is hoped to be more reliable. This is now the type favoured by almost all e-bike manufacturers and distributors. Again 500 charge capability.

 

The lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO4) mentioned at the start is thought to be the next generation battery but bike manufacturers are not yet convinced of some reliability aspects. In theory they are capable of around 2000 charges, but should easily manage 1000 and might even make 5000 charges in future. They are a bit larger and heavier than the current polymer batteries. They can be bought from independent suppliers to make up one's own battery and some forum members have done that.

 

P.S. Fecn got in first, but we've covered this in two different ways.

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Edited February 3, 200917 yr by flecc

I was just paraphrasing what I already knew you were going to say

Awesome thanks guys!

Don't forget the other form of "LiPo"

Suction

Very high energy density, but very slow charge rate and a real pain to use in practice.

 

Nick