I'm doing a project for my last year of secondary school on lithium cobalt batteries and got confused about the equation.
This is the only equation I can find (source: www.science.org.au):
\begin{align} \ce{LiC6 &→ $x$ Li+ + $x$ e- + C6}\tag{anode}\\ \ce{Li_{(1−x)}CoO2 + $x$ Li+ + $x$ e- &→ LiCoO2}\tag{cathode}\\ \hline \ce{C6 + LiCoO2 &→ Li_xC6 + Li_{(1−x)}CoO2}\\ \end{align}
But I don't understand it at all! I figured it must be balanced, but the '$x$' part of the equation is beyond my level of understanding. Is there a simpler way of writing this formula for someone at my level? If not, can someone please explain what this equation means?