What is the reason why the lithium battery industry is eager to remove cobalt elements?

ଲେଖକ: ଆଇଫ୍ଲୋପାୱାର - Proveïdor de centrals portàtils

Cobalt accounts for one-fifth of the lithium ion cathode material, usually there are two types: NMC (nickel manganese cobalt oxide) or NCA (nickel-cobalt aluminum oxide). The cobalt in these batteries has a stable use, and it is possible to prevent cathode corrosion of the battery. It can also increase the charging rate of the battery, but this raw material is quite expensive, and it is difficult to obtain.

In addition, there are some social problems in cobalt. Nearly two-thirds of cobalt in the world are mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Congo (Jin)), as a secondary product for large-scale nickel and copper mine. But the Congo (Jin) also has a large team composed of a large number of independent or handmade mining, and they are effectively operated without any safety supervision.

This leads to a phenomenon of large amounts of human rights in Congo Cobalt Mine, including using child labor. Mantiram and the cathode developed by his colleagues have evaporated cobalt by adding nickel content; calculated by weight, nickel accounts for 89% of the metal weight in the cathode. Their battery combines the ingredients of NMC and NCA cathodes, thereby created a NMA (nickel-manganese aluminum oxide) cathode without cobalt.

Mantiram said, although the team is not the first team that has developed a cobalt or high-nickel cathode, this is the first team that does not have a short battery life, low energy density low-. The technical director of the University of Michigan Battery Laboratory, Gregless, said that Manthiram's cathode materials "show huge foreground". He believes that the cobalt battery also do more detection to deal with other similar cathodic chemical materials, for example, manganese dissolution tendencies in high temperatures, but the preliminary detection of the battery is encouraging.

"A cobalt-free alternative to competing with cobalt-containing electrodes, this is a very exciting thing. "Less) also has a high hope for this battery. These powder samples will be manufactured into a cobalt-free catholic to achieve this goal, Manthiram and his team use specialized techniques to mix raw materials on nanoscale.

This includes pumping a solution containing nickel, manganese and aluminum ions into the reactor, mixing in the reactor mixed with another solution bonded to metal ions. As a result, a fine mixed powder of a metal hydroxide is calcined together with lithium hydroxide to form a material for a cathode. During the whole process, the pumping rate and temperature are not accurately controlled to ensure that the generated cathode material has the correct structure and ingredients.

Mantiram said: "Design cathode component is very good basic chemistry knowledge. But we finally found a way to control this process so you can mix atomic scale mixing. "Once Mandhersram and his team successfully mixed these elements, they put the cathode in a tested lithium-ion bag battery, and the anode uses traditional graphite electrodes.

During the detection process, they found that in different charging rates and hundreds of charging cycles, their performance is comparable to the commercially available lithium-ion battery. Although the energy density of the cobalt cobiosis is slightly low, it means that it can store less lithium ions, but Mantiram believes that it can make up for this gap by further perfecting its chemical composition. From theory to the commercial competition of commercially available cobi-free batteries, it has been in full swing, and he is focusing on bringing the battery out of the laboratory and enter the actual world.

Recently Mantiram has established TexPower to achieve commercialization of battery cathodes. He said that from the current trend, it should be easily combined with existing battery manufacturing process. This cobalt electrode can be used in a series of batteries such as consumer-level electronic products, electric vehicles and energy networks.

Mantiram hopes that his cortical cockpine can put market in a few years. However, he is not the only explorer in this category. A startup called Sparkz recently obtained the authorization of cobocar codes from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy to commercialize the technology.

Old companies like Panasonic are also competing to reduce the cobalt content in the battery. Elonmusk has been hoping to use cobitable batteries in Tesla in Tesla, and many industry breakdowners are expected to announce the Batteryday activity in Tesla next month in low cobalt lithium ions. Break of battery.

However, will the cobalt-containing battery are replaced in a short time? However, the cobalt cobalt can also have some time to represent the former Chairman of the Cobalt Institute (Cobaltinstitute), the current consultant DavidWeight. In addition to the stability and performance advantages of this metal to lithium ion batteries, companies that manufacture lithium-ion batteries spend a few years and billions of dollars to improve the cobalt cobalt;. This means that any new participants do not overcome many industries inertia.

Weight said: "Before you can become a business practice, we have a long way to look forward to the future. Turning to a new technology will not be a. In the foreseeable future, cobalt will still be a long time in the battery.

"WorldBank" recent report predicts, in the past few decades, cobalt production is not more than 500%, in order to meet the increasing demand of lithium-ion batteries. Weight said that only the Democratic Republic of the Congo cannot meet this need, and there are several cobalt exploration companies in the world to explore to ensure further open mining. As of now, the largest cobalt ore bed is found in the sea, although deep sea mining is still a controversial issue.

But even if the supply is proven is not a problem, the cobalt cobalt can still make lithium ion batteries more cheaper than ever, toxic, and more moral standards.