beating the battery barrier - lithium battery manufacturers

Just a few years ago, electric cars were just a choice for technology enthusiasts or hardcore environmental activists.
Slow and expensive, they spend hours charging, and their frustrating range can put you in trouble before you clean up the suburbs.
By 2020, the picture will look very different.
You can charge your electric sports car during the time you drink coffee, and then drive 500 kilometers before you need to recharge.
Driven by environmental regulation, government incentives and rapid innovation, the electric vehicle revolution is coming.
The International Energy Agency predicts that the number of electric vehicles on global roads will increase from 2 million today to 20 million in 2020 and to 70 million by 2025.
The Chinese government is about to launch-
Through tax cuts, research subsidies and a ruling, 12% of all cars sold in the country must be electric vehicles by 2020, bringing their car industry into the electric age.
Britain, France, Norway, India and several other countries intend to do better by completely eliminating gasoline and diesel engines in the coming decades.
Without a parallel revolution in the way we store and transport energy, it would be impossible.
The performance of electric vehicles depends largely on the quality of the battery.
Strong development, long term
A long-lasting, safe battery capable of storing a lot of energy is critical to this vision.
One company at the forefront of all this is BASF.
The German chemical giant has provided most leading battery manufacturers with one of their most important components: materials that make up cathode electrodes in lithiumion battery.
Markus Hoelzle, who oversees the product development of BASF's battery materials, said: "cathode materials determine the key performance of the battery, such as energy content, safety and longevity . ".
"Due to the demand for low demand, there is a great need for improvement in this area
Cost, safe, fast
Use the extended drive range to charge the battery. ”Lithium-
Ion batteries generate current through the movement of ions and electrons.
When the battery is discharged, the lithium ion passes through the electrolyte from one electrode (the anode)to another (the cathode).
The lithium ion collected on the cathode adds positive electricity, attracting electrons with negative electricity.
When electrons move to ions through an external circuit, this creates a current that powers the car.
This process is the opposite in the charging process.
The reason why cathode materials play such a critical role is that it is primarily responsible for the flow of ions.
In the first lithium
The ion battery, launched by Sony in 1991, has a cathode electrode made of lithium cobalt oxide with high energy density.
But cobalt is expensive.
If lithium cobalt oxide is used in the battery, it is 400-
The mileage of cobalt alone is more than $5000.
In order to make the battery more affordable, BASF replaced part of the cobalt with nickel, the fifth place in the price.
In some ways, since the energy density of nickel is twice that of it, it is a better cathode material.
But the oxygen in this mixture can be released at a relatively low temperature, increasing the risk of fire.
The solution is to add another metal to stabilize the mixture, usually manganese or aluminum with lower chemical activity.
BASF's researchers spent a lot of time researching these combinations and learning about their properties.
This work has become more difficult due to the various needs of battery manufacturers.
For example, different types of electric vehicles give priority to different functions.
All-electric vehicles need batteries with a lot of storage capacity to maximize the range of travel.
This requires a cathode with a high energy density-a cathode that can absorb as many lithium ions as possible in as little space as possible.
Nickel is perfect for this, and the more nickel you can pack, the greater the mileage-but the greater the risk of fire.
Find the best nickel content for safe, high nickel content
Energy batteries are one of the major research challenges facing BASF.
"Our goal is to achieve maximum energy density with safe materials," Hoelzle said . ".
In contrast, for hybrid cars, the speed at which the battery provides energy is more important than the storage capacity.
This is because hybrid cars tend to use batteries in explosions, for example when accelerating.
In order to provide high power, the battery must quickly move a large number of lithium ions from the anode to the cathode.
Therefore, BASF researchers designed cathode materials using small particles, which left room for the rapid entry and exit of lithium ions.
It will be more helpful if the cathode material is porous: more holes mean more space and greater ion flow.
This cutting-
Edge research should significantly reduce the cost of batteries. Lithium-
The price of ion car batteries is about $200 per kWh.
Jeffrey Lou, who is in charge of BASF's global battery materials business, believes that improved technology will help reduce this cost to $90 per kilowatt hour.
"However, innovation will be key in terms of materials, efficient production processes and recycling of used batteries," he said . ".
The impact will be enormous.
Affordable electric vehicles will bring a quieter, cleaner city, but will also change the way we live.
For example, when you shop, you should be able to drive to the supermarket to charge your car and then pay for your energy and food together.
"The technology has been seen on the bench in the lab," Hoelzle said . ".
"In the near future, we will see a new way of moving.