Make a Lithium Thionyl Chloride Battery

How to make a Lithium Thionyl Chloride Battery capable of generating 2.8v with enough current to power a LED.

Warning: Thionyl Chloride is EXTREMELY toxic and this experiment must be performed in a fumehood by an experienced chemist with proper safety precautions.

Lithium thionyl chloride batteries offer excellent shelf life (sometimes over a decade) and energy density. Their main drawback is they are not rechargeable but for low power applications like memory backup they are extremely useful. At very low power levels, they can outlast the device they are installed in, making the recharge issue a non-issue.

As seen in this experiment, they are also extremely simple to make.

A solution of lithium tetrachloroaluminate in thionyl chloride serves as the electrolyte and the lithium and carbon rods are simply inserted in. The cell can produce up to 3.5volts depending on the purity and quality of the components. Our cell in the video used waste chemicals we had leftover around the lab so the voltage is not that high. But it did produce enough power to light a small light emitting a diode.

Commercial cells use lithium foil and spongy carbon for greater current but the concept is still the same.

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[alphascan13]

Very interesting, but what is a good practical purpose for this type of thing?

[NurdRage]

if properly built with pure chemicals, these batteries can reliably provide power for years. They are used in low-power sealed devices like remote monitoring stations, where changing the battery is inconvenient and would preferably be done as rarely as possible, if ever.

[9daywonda]

I have heard it said that you can produce a crude mild form of battery pack by utilizing a common household lemon (or coca cola).

[NurdRage]

@9daywonda

Type "lemon battery" into youtube search

[BlackMagicProd]

@bla287 what?

[bla287]

Wow, I totally didn't expect lithium metal and SOCl2 to NOT react violently with each other, considering that SOCl2 is the mixed anhydride of HCl and H2SO3

But anyway, what is the reduction here? I can see the oxidation being Li -> Li(+) + e(-) but what is getting reduced? Out of all elements here I can only think of the sulphur, which is only at +IV state to start with... So is the sulphur in the thionyl chloride eventually reduced to elemtanl S? Like: 4 Li + SOCl2 -> Li2O + 2 LiCl + S ?

[AZMALING]

@donpoccho shelf life means how long the chemical can be stored. 

[TechBoywii]

@Furbee178 ummmmmmm why did you search up chemistry then?

[Furbee178]

ummmmmm i have no idea what he said

[309401164]

i need to do this for a class project but as you said the solution is quite dangerous so i was wondering if the same can be done with bromine water?

[donpoccho]

how long does the power last on this battery what did you mean by shelf life?

[ConorC96]

@NurdRage

How can You purify the thionyl chloride solution?

[CherryBomb076]

im not a fucking nered haha im drunk cant u tell

[adriiPortillo]

i cant get thyonil chloride, i only have sulfuryl chloride. Its a darn good dehydratating reagent, maybe even as good as phosphorous pentoxide. It's very toxic too.