Can graphene batteries replace lithium batteries in the future?
We all know that the quality of new energy vehicle power batteries directly affects the length of the cruising range. At this stage, our lithium-ion battery development has reached a certain bottleneck period, and it is somewhat difficult to increase it in a short time. So our car manufacturers are looking for other ways, such as using graphene batteries, then can it replace lithium batteries in the future?
Let’s first understand what graphene is. Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial with a hexagonal honeycomb lattice composed of carbon atoms and sp2 hybrid orbitals. , Simply put, it is a new material. After the graphite sheet is peeled into a single layer, the single-layer material with the thickness of only one carbon atom is graphene. Graphene has excellent optical, electrical, and mechanical properties, and has important application prospects in materials science, micro-nano processing, energy, biomedicine, and drug delivery. It is known to humans as having high strength, good toughness, light weight, and light transmission. The new nanomaterials with high rate and good conductivity are hailed as the 'king of new materials' by the majority of researchers.
Moreover, there are also experimental data that show that there are many advantages in batteries made of graphene:
1, single time The cruising range can be as high as 1000 kilometers;
2, a single full charge only takes less than 8 minutes;
3, use The life span is four times that of traditional hydrogenated batteries and twice that of lithium batteries;
4, the weight is only half of traditional batteries;
5. The cost of the battery is 77% lower than that of the lithium battery.
It can be seen that graphene batteries have considerable potential and are the best material to replace lithium-ion batteries.
However, at this stage, graphene batteries cannot be mass-produced. First of all, there is a cost issue. Traditional conductive carbon black and graphite are sold per ton, but graphene is sold per ton. Sell, raw materials 3 million yuan/ton. In addition, the process is not compatible, and the graphene surface area is too large, which will cause a lot of process problems in the processes of dispersion and homogenization of existing lithium-ion batteries. Perhaps the laboratory can handle it, but it will take a long time to be used for mass production. Even the graphene battery that appears now is not a graphene battery in the true sense, it is just a little graphene doped in the lithium battery.
However, although the current graphene batteries cannot replace lithium batteries in a true sense, with the continuous advancement of science and technology, one day it will be realized that graphene batteries replace lithium batteries. , The scene that became the mainstream of the power battery industry.