Current Status and Prospects of Lithium Battery Material Technology Market

　　Driven by both policies and the market, power batteries will inevitably develop in the direction of high energy density, high cycle performance, and high safety performance. This requires research institutions and enterprises to make improvements in cathode materials, anode materials, and electrolytes.

　　Thanks to the development of new energy vehicles, power batteries are at the forefront of rapid development, and the development of new energy vehicles has continuously put forward higher requirements for the performance of power batteries. The "Action Plan for Promoting the Development of the Automotive Power Battery Industry" puts forward, By 2020, the specific energy of the new lithium-ion power battery cell will exceed 300wh/Kg, and by 2025, the specific energy of the power battery cell of the new system will reach 500wh/Kg.　　 Under the dual drive of policy and market, power batteries will inevitably develop in the direction of high energy density, high cycle performance, and high safety performance. This requires research institutions and enterprises to make improvements in cathode materials, anode materials, and electrolytes. Solid-state batteries, silicon-carbon anodes, high-nickel ternary materials, and lithium-rich manganese anodes are considered to be the mainstream technology routes developed by enterprises in recent years. Lithium-rich manganese-based cathode: an ideal material with less precious metal content. The technical goal of a single battery in 2025 is to achieve a specific energy of 400Wh/kg. The development of more efficient and energy-saving new cathode materials to overcome and replace the existing defective cathode materials becomes Research hotspots. Among the known cathode materials, the specific discharge capacity of lithium-rich manganese-based cathode materials is more than 250 mAh/g, which is almost twice the actual capacity of the current commercial cathode materials. At the same time, this material uses the cheaper manganese element. Mainly, the content of precious metals is small, compared with the commonly used lithium cobalt oxide and nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode materials, not only the cost is low, but also the safety is good. Therefore, lithium-rich manganese-based cathode materials are regarded as ideal materials for the next generation of lithium power batteries.　　How long will it take to achieve 500wh/Kg? Overview of the development trend of lithium battery material technology 　　 Many companies, including Dangsheng Technology, Jiangte Electric, and AVIC Lithium, are stepping up the research and development of lithium-rich manganese-based cathode materials. The Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has improved the voltage attenuation of lithium-rich manganese-based cathode cycles, reaching the target of reducing the voltage attenuation to less than 2% after 100 weeks, and has made significant progress. For the first time, a team from Peking University has developed a lithium-rich manganese-based positive electrode with a specific capacity of 400mAh/g, which can reach the target of 400Wh/kg.　　 At present, the full application of lithium-rich manganese-based cathodes still has technical problems such as reducing the first irreversible capacity loss, improving the rate performance and cycle life, and suppressing the voltage attenuation during the cycle, which need to be solved. High nickel ternary materials: 2018 is the first year of development. According to the starting point research forecast, the output of nickel, cobalt and manganese in 2018 will reach 47GWh, which will be 32% higher than last year, while the output of lithium cobalt oxide will only be 19GWh, only 5% higher than last year . Constrained by the scarcity of cobalt and the continuous rise in the price of cobalt, battery companies actively promote the high nickel of ternary materials and reduce costs by reducing the proportion of cobalt in the battery. The content of cobalt molecules in NCM811 is only 6.06%.　　 Nickel, cobalt and manganese materials have high energy density, stable electrochemical performance, high capacity, low cost and other advantages. In the future, they will gradually replace lithium iron phosphate and ordinary ternary batteries. At present, companies such as Dangsheng Technology, Shanshan Co., Ltd., and Beiterui already have the conditions for mass production of NCM811, and 2018 is considered to be the first year of the development of high-nickel ternary materials.　　Solid-state batteries: Solid materials replace diaphragms and electrolytes. 　　All-solid-state batteries are recognized in the industry and academia as one of the mainstream directions for the next step in battery development.　　How long will it take to achieve 500wh/Kg? Overview of the development trend of lithium battery material technology 　　 On the one hand, all-solid-state battery technology is the only way to miniaturize and thin-film batteries. The volume of the diaphragm and the electrolyte together account for almost 40% of the battery volume. If the diaphragm and electrolyte are replaced by solid materials, the distance between the positive and negative electrodes can be shortened to a few microns, and the thickness of the battery will be greatly reduced.　　 On the other hand, compared with ordinary lithium batteries, the energy density of all solid-state batteries has been greatly improved, and can reach 300-400Wh/kg, while lithium-ion batteries are generally 100-220Wh/kg. High safety is also one of the important driving factors for the development of all-solid-state batteries. From a safety point of view, traditional lithium battery electrolyte is an organic liquid, which will oxidize and decompose to produce gas at high temperatures, which is prone to combustion, which greatly increases Unsafe. If the electrolyte is replaced by solid materials, the safety performance of the battery will be greatly improved. At present, the polymer solid-state battery developed by Qingdao Energy Institute has an energy density of 300Wh/kg, and the inorganic solid-state lithium battery developed by Ningbo Materials Research Institute has an energy density of 240Wh/kg. In addition, the organization is cooperating with Ganfeng Lithium to advance Its industrialization, the product plans to mass produce in 2019. In the industry, leading battery companies, including Toyota, Panasonic, Samsung, Mitsubishi, CATL, etc., have invested in R&D and deployed solid-state batteries. Solid-state batteries are undoubtedly one of the mainstream technology routes in the future, but there are still problems such as high cost, complex preparation process, and immature technology. The overall rate performance of the battery is low, the internal resistance is large, and the voltage drop during high-rate discharge is large. Problems such as the unrealistic fast charging and other issues also need to be solved urgently, and there is still a way to go to achieve large-scale commercialization. Silicon carbon anode: Two to three years will usher in an explosion. Silicon carbon material is currently the most commercialized high-energy density new anode material. SPIR predicts that the silicon carbon material industry will begin to be a large area of lithium battery anode in the second half of 2018. The material stage is bound to usher in a major explosion in the next two to three years, and the industry has a broad prospect.　　How long will it take to achieve 500wh/Kg? Overview of the development trend of lithium battery material technology. The ultra-high theoretical energy density of silicon-carbon composite materials can significantly increase the specific capacity of the monomer. In addition, it has the advantages of low lithium extraction voltage and environmental friendliness. It is considered to be an ideal negative electrode for the next generation of graphite. Material. With the development of new energy vehicles continuously putting forward higher requirements for the specific energy of power batteries, graphite will gradually be replaced by silicon carbon anode materials in the future. As of December 2017, the top 8 anode material companies in China are basically increasing the expansion of silicon carbon material production capacity, and there are also a number of new cross-industry entrants involved in the layout of silicon carbon anode materials, and their new capacity will be 2018-2019 Started production successively. BYD, CATL, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Beiterui, Shanshan, Lishen, BAK, Wanxiang, etc. have all launched the layout of silicon carbon anode materials.　　 Although the current silicon-carbon anode materials still have problems such as high cost, difficult technology, and imperfect supporting industries, the prospects for large-scale applications are still promising.