Lithium News

Over the past decades, engineers and chemists have been working to develop increasingly advanced battery technologies that could help to meet the rising demands of the electronics industry. This has led to the emergence of new types of batteries, including all-solid-state batteries.

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) are battery cells that include a solid electrolyte situated between two electrodes. These batteries, particularly all-solid-state lithium-metal batteries (ASSLBs), can exhibit high energy densities and greater safety, addressing some of the limitations of conventional lithium-ion battery (LiB) designs.

Despite their advantageous properties, ASSLBs have not yet been deployed on a large scale. This is partly because the growth of Li dendrites and their high interface resistance can significantly impair their performance.

Researchers at University of Maryland recently introduced a new principle for designing safe and high energy ASSLBs. This principle, outlined in Nature Energy, could help to develop more powerful and reliable fuel cells for electric vehicles and large robotic systems.

“Current effort to tackle the lithium dendrite issue of all-solid-state batteries relies on trial-and-error experiments,” Zeyi Wang, first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. “Instead of just reporting one single interlayer, this paper aims to develop an interface design principle that can guide the fabrication of a series of interlayers. This is a way to fully solve the lithium dendrite issue in all-solid-state batteries.”

The key objective of the recent work by Wang and his colleagues was to identify a promising strategy to mitigate Li-dendrite growth in ASSLBs. To achieve this, the team proposed the introduction of a special layer between the lithium anode and solid electrolyte in battery cells.

“Adding a special layer between the lithium anode and the solid electrolyte can potentially tackle lithium dendrites issues, but the properties of the interlayer are of key importance to attain this,” Wang explained. “Our design principle correlates battery stabilities with several key properties of interlayer. Specifically, it highlights that the interlayer should be lithiophobic (i.e., repelled by lithium metal), highly ionic conductive and slightly electronic conductive, and porous.”

As part of their study, the researchers used their design principle to create a Li₄SiO₄@LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂/Li₆PS₅Cl/20 µm-Li battery cell with an area capacity of 2.2 mAh cm^-2. In initial tests, these battery cells were found to perform remarkably well, retaining 82.4% of their capacity after 350 operation cycles at 60° C at a rate of 0.5 C.

“While previous studies introduced many interfaces for lithium dendrite suppression, their underlying mechanism was not explained clearly and the design cannot be generalized,” Wang said. “The success of our design principle is that it opens new opportunities to develop safe batteries.”

Notably, the design principle introduced by Wang and his colleagues could be applied to a wide range of ASSBs, helping to suppress Li-dendrite formation and thus enhancing battery performance. Therefore, it could soon pave the way for the development of a wide range of safe and highly performing battery technologies containing solid electrolytes, which could power electric vehicles and other large electronics.

“In our next studies, we will test more interfaces to modify and verify the design principle,” Wang added. “We will then optimize the materials of the interface based on design principles. We plan to scale up for manufacturing and ultimately test the device on vehicles in the future.”

A team led by Prof. Wu Zhongshuai has developed novel 2D atomically thin (001)-oriented single-crystalline LiCoO2 nanosheets with longer Li+ intercalation distance and (001) planes dominated surface for high-performance battery-supercapacitor hybrid devices. This study was published in ACS Energy Letters.

Shorter Li⁺ intercalation distance or lower intercalation energy barrier enables fast diffusion in Li⁺ intercalation process. However, it has been found that nanosize effect in nanocrystalline LiCoO₂ affects surface-redox and Li⁺ intercalation processes simultaneously.

As the crystallite size decreases, more Li⁺ intercalation processes are replaced by surface-redox processes, which brings about decreased platform capacity, low initial coulombic efficiency, and poor cycle performance. Therefore, the nanosize effect restricts the application of nanostructured LiCoO₂ in “double high” battery-supercapacitor hybrid devices.

To solve this problem, Prof. Wu’s team attempted to regulate the nanosize effect by precisely controlling the Li⁺ intercalation process and surface-redox process.

The team synthesized micro-sized atomically thin single-crystalline LCO nanosheets (SC-LCO) and nanocrystalline LCO nanosheets (NC-LCO).

Compared with NC-LCO, SC-LCO presented longer Li⁺ intercalation distance and decreased side reactions. Both coulombic efficiency and discharge capacity of SC-LCO at 1C (194 mAh g^-1, 92%) were higher than those of NC-LCO (173 mAh g^-1, 86%).

The specific capacity of SC-LCO maintained 151 mAh g^-1 (83%) after cycling for 500 cycles, which preceded NC-LCO (84 mAh g^-1, 63%).

Moreover, the team fabricated a battery-supercapacitor hybrid device with SC-LCO, which achieved high-energy and high-power, demonstrating the practical applicability of this nanosheets.

Scientists at the University of Córdoba in Spain have come up with a way of incorporating hemoglobin – the key component of red blood cells – into a battery, creating a prototype that kept working for between 20 and 30 days.

Zinc-air batteries are one of the most sustainable alternatives we have to the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries that already power everything from laptops to electric vehicles. They work via a chemical reaction called the oxygen reduction reaction. As air is pulled into the battery, oxygen is reduced to water at the cathode (the positive end), releasing electrodes that oxidize zinc at the anode (negative end).

To keep that reaction going, you need a good catalyst, with some very specific properties. Properties, the researchers realized, that hemoglobin certainly has. “To be a good catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction, the catalyst has to have two properties: it needs to quickly absorb oxygen molecules, and form water molecules relatively easily,” explained senior author Manuel Cano Luna in a statement. “And hemoglobin met those requirements.”

Hemoglobin is the protein that gives red blood cells both their characteristic hue and their oxygen-carrying ability. It’s fundamental to how our bodies work, and it turned out to be pretty impressive in the battery as well: just 0.165 milligrams of hemoglobin kept it alive for 20-30 days.

The researchers say that using a biocompatible catalyst like this could be key if these batteries are to be used in devices that are implanted inside the body, such as pacemakers. The battery works at pH 7.4, which is very similar to the pH of blood. The possibilities could extend beyond humans too, since hemoglobin analogs are present in many mammals.

There are still some things to perfect, however. The biggest issue at the moment is that the prototype is not rechargeable, so the team is searching for a protein that might be able to transform water back into oxygen and start the reaction cycle again from the beginning. The fact it needs oxygen at all is another limitation, meaning these sorts of batteries won’t be usable for applications in space.

But it’s still a fascinating possibility. Energy storage remains a major hurdle in humanity’s quest to move towards a more sustainable future. Batteries are improving all the time. While lithium-ion batteries are undoubtedly an important part of that story, issues around mining enough lithium and the waste they generate mean that there’s room for other options.

A biocompatible hemoglobin-based battery might just be one of them.

A new material that could dramatically reduce the amount of lithium used in batteries has been identified by artificial intelligence (AI). Discoveries like this would have taken years in times gone by, but sky-rocketing computer power now means they can be found in days.

The new material was recently sniffed out during a joint venture by Microsoft and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which employed the help of advanced AI and high-performance computing (HPC), a type of cloud-based computing that uses large numbers of computers to solve complex scientific and mathematical tasks.

The system analyzed over 32 million potential inorganic materials and, within just 80 hours, it managed to weedle this down to 18 promising candidates that could be used in battery development. Humans then tested these candidates and discovered one electrolyte that looked particularly promising.

Lithium-ion batteries are set to become an invaluable tool in the transition towards sustainable energy. Given their growing importance, demand for lithium is expected to rise five to 10 times by the end of this decade, according to the US Department of Energy.

However, there are many hurdles to overcome. Natural deposits of lithium are relatively scarce, while mining can be costly, damaging to the environment and local communities, and prone to rile up geopolitical conflict. This is why scientists, as well as the powers that be, are so keen to find materials that could be used as a substitute.

The material is a solid-state electrolyte. It was thought that sodium ions and lithium ions couldn’t be used together in a single solid-state electrolyte system due to their chemical qualities, but the AI system indicated that such a material was possible. When the researchers tested the idea, it turned out to be true.

Since the electrolyte uses both lithium and sodium, as well as some other elements, it reduces the amount of required lithium by as much as 70 percent.

The researchers at Microsoft and PNNL have since synthesized the material and used it to make functional prototype batteries. They’re currently in the lengthy process of testing these batteries to see how they hold up in the real world.

Tasks like this, which essentially involve sifting through colossal amounts of data, are perfect for AI. A similar way in which this technology is being able is discovering new pharmacological compounds and drugs. In 2020, researchers from MIT used a specially designed computer algorithm to sift through a vast digital archive of over 100 million chemical compounds and managed to identify a powerful antibiotic that’s even able to kill superbugs.

“We’re sitting on the precipice of this maturation of the artificial intelligence models, the computational power needed to train and make them useful, and the ability to train them on specific scientific domains with specific intelligence,” Brian Abrahamson, the chief digital officer at PNNL, said in a statement. “That, we believe, is going to usher in a new era of acceleration. That is exciting because these problems matter to the world.”

The paper, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, was recently posted on the preprint site arXiv.

It has been only 13 years since the first mainstream electric vehicle – the Nissan Leaf – arrived in America. In that relatively short time, the Leaf has been joined by more than forty other battery-electric vehicles, and last year, almost 1.2 million electric vehicles were sold in America. The electric vehicle is still in its infancy, but its numbers continue to grow, accounting for 7.6 percent of total vehicles sold.

Electric cars may be more expensive to purchase than their gasoline-fueled counterparts, but EV ownership has clear benefits. Daily operating costs are lower, there are no tailpipe emissions, and, for the most part, maintenance costs are minimal. However, significant unexpected expenses can arise, primarily if the battery needs to be replaced.

At the start, it’s important to point out that the odds of replacing the battery in an electric vehicle are rather low. According to a study by Recurrent, the need to replace the battery pack only occurs in about 1.5 percent of EVs. The study also showed that the early production Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S were on the high end of the average, but this isn’t surprising since these are the oldest electric cars on the road.

As the Department of Energy points out, while the advanced batteries in electric vehicles are designed for long life, they will wear out eventually. However, the DOE’s predictive modeling from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory shows current EV batteries will likely last between 12 and 15 years in moderate climates and between eight and 12 years in more extreme temperatures. Based on this, most automakers provide a battery pack warranty for up to 10 years or 120,000 miles.

Slowing growth in electric vehicle sales, including in the top EV market, China, and a market oversupply in battery metals sent lithium prices crashing by 80% in the past year, prompting lithium miners to pause and scale back expansion projects.

China’s EV sales continued to grow last year but fell short of expectations. On the other hand, raw material providers, which had rushed to mine lithium in the past two years to meet growing demand, have outproduced the current demand. As a result, lithium prices crashed last year by over 80% to the lowest level since 2020, at $13,200 per ton, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence says, as carried by the Financial Times.

Lithium Oversupply 

As miners accelerated lithium production in 2022, the market swung from a supply deficit in 2022 to a surplus in 2023. Add to this slower Chinese EV sales than in previous years, and the perfect storm on the lithium market was created—too much supply, faltering demand.

The lithium supply response has charged ahead of demand, price reporting agency Fastmarkets said in a report this week.

“Market participants expect downstream lithium demand to remain relatively weak and with no imminent concerns about supply shortages, we forecast a tentatively balanced market in 2024,” according to Fastmarkets.

Some restocking could occur in the second quarter of 2024, leading to a mild recovery in lithium prices, but they are set to “generally trend down for the second half of the year,” Fastmarkets’ analysts noted.

In December, a Chinese lithium seller told Fastmarkets,

“Although we had some sales to the end consumers, the volume is very small. Consumer demand was very thin.”

EV Growth Slows

Demand growth has slowed while stockpiles of battery metals have increased, putting downward pressure on lithium prices.

In China, the world’s top electric vehicle market, EV penetration has continued to grow, but China’s retail EV sales volume growth has fallen considerably, according to Goldman Sachs.

Chinese EV sales grew by 1.5 million units between January and October 2023, compared to 2.3 million unit sales in the same period of 2022, “pointing towards a normalisation in supply chains,” Goldman Sachs’s research analysts wrote in a note at the end of November.

“Most battery materials and components are seeing a softening in their balance as our batteries analysts note while ‘greenflation’ concerns are now abating. The accelerated supply expansion and battery capex surge from past 18 months has pushed China’s battery balance into a surplus, which in turn has weighed on restocking demand for lithium,” the investment bank said.

“The supply chain normalisation combined with phase-out of national subsidies in China has also weighed on the pace of growth of EV demand,” according to Goldman’s analysts.

“[T]he softening in the lithium market has become incrementally apparent with the slowdown in demand growth now in direct contrast with growing global lithium supply.”

In China alone, there appears to have been a surplus of over 200 GWh of lithium-ion batteries last year, Wood Mackenzie said in a 2024 outlook on EV and battery supply chains.

“Automakers are likely sitting on secured cell supply for EV sales that failed to materialise,” WoodMac’s analysts wrote.

Lithium Miners Scramble to Withstand the Price Crash

As a result of oversupply, weaker EV demand growth, and crashing prices, some of the biggest lithium miners have started to take measures to mitigate the impact on profitability.

Albemarle, one of the world’s top lithium producers, said last week it was re-phasing larger projects, reducing capital expenditures, deferring some spending, and planning job cuts, to “optimize its cost structure in response to changing end-market conditions, particularly in the lithium value chain.”

Albemarle will prioritize permitting activities at the Kings Mountain spodumene resource and defer spending at the Richburg mega-flex lithium conversion facility, as well as defer investment for the Albemarle Technology Park in North Carolina and limit sustaining capital spending to the most critical health, safety, environmental, and site maintenance projects.?

“The company is also pursuing actions to optimize its cost structure, reducing costs by approximately $95 million annually, primarily related to sales, general, and administrative expenses, including a reduction in headcount and lower spending on contracted services,” Albemarle said.