Non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery and method of producing the same

DETAILED DESCRIPTION An object of the present is to provide a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery using a material capable of absorbing and releasing lithium as a negative electrode active material.
Another object of the present is to provide a novel secondary battery having a high voltage and a high energy density in which charge and discharge characteristics are excellent, the cycle life is long, and reliability is high.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery using a composite oxide containing lithium as a negative electrode active material.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery in which inside the battery after assembly thereof or inside or outside the battery depending on the way of producing the battery, monoxide MO of metal or metalloid M and lithium or material containing lithium are electrochemically reacted to incorporate lithium ion into the monoxide MO of the metal or the metalloid and to produce composite oxide Li.
sub.
x MO of the metal or the metalloid and lithium.
To solve the problem hereinbefore described, the present invention uses a novel lithium ion occlusion/emission material composed of composite oxide which is composed of metal or metalloid M and lithium Li according to composition formula Li.
sub.
x MO (where M represents a metal or a metalloid other than alkali metals, and 0.
ltoreq.
x is satisfied) as an active material of at least one of the negative electrode or positive electrode of the battery of this kind.
The composite oxide capable of lithium ion occlusion/emission in a non-aqueous electrolyte by electrochemical reaction is used wherein lithium is contained in crystal structure or amorphous structure of the oxide having a composition ratio of 1:1 composed of metal or metalloid M other than alkali metals and oxygen O.
For the metal or the metalloid M forming the composite oxide, any suitable material that can produce monoxide is used; namely, transition metals such as Fe, Mn, Ti, V, Nb, Co, and Ni; metals other than alkali metals such as Zn, Cd, Mg, Ba, Pb, and Sn; and metalloids such as Si, B, Ge, and Sb; and the like