The effect of conductive carbon type and loading was examined for the iron phthalocyanine (FePc) cathode in primary lithium (Li) batteries. The use of nano graphene platelets (NGPs) as a conductive carbon was shown to increase the discharge capacity by a factor of at least 2.5 compared to typical carbon blacks and vapor grown carbon fibers. Discharge capacities of up to 2050 mAh g(-1) FePc, corresponding to the insertion of 43 Li+, were obtained for FePc based cathodes with 25% NGPs. This is the highest cathode capacity reported in literature to our knowledge. Cathodes with 10% NGP still demonstrated reasonable capacities. Electrolyte solutions based on propylene carbonate demonstrated higher discharge voltages than those with the 1.2 M lithium tetrafluoroborate in gamma-butyrolactone and 1,2-dimethoxyethane (1:1 by volume). (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.