Power battery fog, why is the new generation of products so late?
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Author : Jazmyn
Update time : 2024-04-09 09:39:30
Power battery industry has a recognized schedule for battery development, which is a 30-year cycle. Based on this cycle, the next generation of batteries should appear around 2020. However, it has not yet reached the stage of large-scale commercialization until 2024.
As the core component of new energy vehicles, all parties attach great importance to it. This makes people wonder, that is, why has there been no breakthrough so far?
The 30-year cycle has succeeded, but the progress of batteries is still long.
Why has the new generation of batteries yet to appear? This starts with the core part of the battery.
The basic principle of the battery is to use highly active metal materials to make the anode, and use more stable materials to make the cathode. The anode material will undergo a reduction reaction (losing electrons) due to the Coulomb force, and the electrons will flow to the cathode to undergo an oxidation reaction (gain electrons). The battery Inside (the electrolyte), the anions from the cathode flow to the anode and combine with cations, thereby forming a loop and generating electrical energy. Different types of batteries mainly have different positive and negative electrodes and electrolyte materials. This is also the breakthrough of each generation of batteries.
Take lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries as examples. The main component of the positive electrode of a lead-acid battery is lead dioxide, and the main component of the negative electrode is lead. The main component of the positive electrode of an electrolyte lithium-ion battery is lithium-containing transition metal oxides and phosphides, and the main component of the negative electrode is carbon material. Compared with lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries have higher energy density, which is the main reason why new energy vehicles choose lithium-ion batteries.
Discovering new materials is a long process.
The cathode materials of lithium-ion batteries were determined in 1980, namely lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, and lithium manganate. But it was not until 1991, when Akira Yoshino eliminated the limitations of lithium metal as the negative electrode and innovatively used graphite as the negative electrode, that he developed the first commercial lithium-ion battery.
After lithium-ion batteries, the industry has invented several batteries using new materials, such as solid-state batteries and sodium-ion batteries.
The history of solid-state batteries dates back to the 19th century. At that time, Michael Faraday discovered the solid electrolytes silver sulfide and lead fluoride, which kicked off the research of solid-state batteries. However, progress in solid-state batteries has needed to be faster due to the involvement of basic scientific research.
It was in the 1950s that scientists successively made breakthroughs in solid-state electrolyte materials, and the development of solid-state batteries accelerated. In the 1990s, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States developed a new solid electrolyte, lithium nitride phosphorus oxygen.
In addition to material innovation, the industry is also trying to "renew" power batteries at the physical level.
Power batteries can be divided into three types according to their shapes: square, soft-packed, and cylindrical. Square ones have the highest share, about 60%.
Companies represented by Tesla hope to replace prismatic batteries with cylindrical batteries. Cylindrical batteries can be divided into two categories: small cylindrical batteries and large cylindrical batteries. The former is already a mature product, while the latter is a newcomer to the industry. The representative of large cylindrical batteries is the 4680 cylindrical battery proposed by Tesla (a battery with a diameter of 46 mm and a height of 80 mm). From Tesla's perspective, this is the best size to improve battery life and reduce costs.
Solid-state batteries are the hottest, but not the future.
Solid-state batteries are the top line in the power battery industry and will be the primary contributors to the next generation of batteries.
The electrolytes of current power batteries are all liquid, while the electrolytes of solid-state batteries have become solid electrolytes. According to the form of the electrolyte, solid-state batteries are divided into three types: quasi-solid, semi-solid and all-solid. The mass percentage of quasi-solid liquid electrolytes is <5%, the mass percentage of semi-solid liquid electrolytes is <10% and the all-solid-state does not contain any liquid electrolytes.
Solid electrolytes have higher thermal stability, which allows power batteries to use positive and negative electrode materials with higher energy density, thus improving the vehicle's endurance. At a time when "battery life is the biggest concern for consumers when buying cars," solid-state batteries can undoubtedly help consumers dispel their worries, so it has become a popular product sought after by the industry.
At present, the technical routes of solid-state batteries are divided into three routes: polymer, oxide and sulfide, each of which has its advantages and disadvantages.
Among them, sulfide has the best performance. It has the highest ionic conductivity among the three material systems, and its texture is relatively soft and has strong plasticity. Japanese and Korean companies are supporters of sulfide, and Toyota, Samsung, and Panasonic have all chosen this route.
The most radical of them all is Toyota, which has also produced the most fruitful results. As early as 2012, Toyota launched the world's first sulfide solid-state battery, with a patent reserve of more than 1,300 items, ranking first in the world.
However, Toyota cannot mass-produce solid-state batteries. In 2017, Toyota announced that it would launch more than ten pure electric vehicles using solid-state batteries from 2020 to 2025, but then the plan was postponed. In 2023, pure electric vehicle sales will account for less than 1% of Toyota's total sales.
This is mainly because the technical difficulty of the sulfide route is too high. This material is prone to side reactions with positive and negative electrode materials, causing high impedance at the interface and increasing internal resistance. In addition, it easily reacts with moisture in the air. It releases toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, which places high demands on production, processing and transportation links, and companies need some special means.
The commercialization of semi-solid-state batteries is progressing relatively quickly.
In December last year, NIO founder Li Bin conducted a live broadcast battery life test. The test object was a semi-solid battery (capacity of 150 degrees). NIO and Weilan New Energy jointly developed this semi-solid battery pack. The energy density of a single cell is 360Wh/kg, and the energy density of the whole package is 260Wh/kg. It uses an in-situ solid-liquid electrolyte, an inorganic pre-elitiated silicon-carbon negative electrode, and a nanoscale-coated ultra-high nickel positive electrode. According to Li Bin's actual measurement, the ET7 equipped with a 150-degree semi-solid-state battery has a driving range of more than 1044km (remaining 36km), and the average energy consumption per 100 kilometers is 13.2 kWh.
During the test, Li Bin also said that this semi-solid battery pack would not be supplied to third parties. "Currently, it is very difficult to mass-produce 150-degree battery packs; the output is relatively low, and the yield rate is also very challenging." Li Bin said.
Difficulty in production is only one of the challenges of semi-solid batteries. Industry insiders revealed that this may be the most cost-effective battery pack in the world per unit (per WH), even exceeding the cost of Tesla's 4680 battery. "Whether it is materials or manufacturing processes, they are definitely the most expensive."
It can be seen that even semi-solid-state batteries, which are progressing rapidly, are now facing cost problems. Based on this, the popularization of all-solid-state batteries is far away. Therefore, the question about solid-state snacking is not "whether it is the future" but when it can be "pulled out and rolled around."
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