Industry Development of Lithium Battery Cathode Materials

The main constituent materials of lithium batteries include electrolyte, separator material, positive and negative electrode materials, electrolyte, etc. Currently, the positive electrode materials successfully developed and applied mainly include lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganate, ternary materials such as lithium nickel cobalt manganate (NCM) and lithium nickel cobalt aluminate (NCA). Favorable factors for the development of the lithium battery cathode material industry 1. Lithium batteries are included in the first batch of key new materials application demonstration guidance catalogue. On July 14, 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the 'Key New Materials First Batch Application Guidance Catalogue.' The 'Guiding Catalog' involves 4 new materials in the field of new energy, including high-performance lithium battery separators, lithium nickel cobalt manganate ternary materials, anode materials, and high-purity crystal lithium hexafluorophosphate materials. 2. The industry develops rapidly and forms an industrial base. Due to the abundant metal resources of lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel and other metals required for the production of lithium battery cathode materials in my country, the downstream application market of lithium batteries such as consumer electronics and new energy vehicles has expanded rapidly. The industry of lithium battery cathode materials in China continues to grow and develop. The domestic lithium battery cathode material industry is highly concentrated, and three major lithium battery cathode material industry bases have been formed in the Beijing-Tianjin area, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and South China. 3. The development of downstream industries drives industry growth. Driven by the rapid development of lithium batteries and their downstream industries, the growth of lithium battery cathode materials is relatively rapid. As a key component of electric vehicles, the power lithium battery is one of the key components that affect the performance, cost and user experience of the entire vehicle, and it is also the component that accounts for the largest proportion of the entire vehicle cost, and its cost accounts for half of the entire vehicle cost. In terms of breakdown, the cost of the four key materials of positive electrode material, negative electrode material, separator and electrolyte account for more than 80% of the battery cost. The cost of the cathode material also accounts for about 40% of the total cost of lithium-ion batteries. 4. Continuous technological innovation Relying on the Yunnan Key Laboratory of Advanced Battery Materials established by Kunming University of Science and Technology, it mainly conducts research on lithium-ion batteries and key materials, and has developed core technologies such as lithium-ion ternary battery cathode materials, battery preparation and management. Since the '13th Five-Year PlanDisadvantages for the development of the lithium battery cathode material industry 1. Excessive low-end products and insufficient high-end products As my country's lithium battery cathode material production capacity is mainly concentrated in low-end products, there is still insufficient production capacity in some high-end products, such as high-performance ternary materials. . Therefore, the lithium battery cathode material industry is currently in a stage of oversupply, and the main driving force in the future will come from the growth in demand for power batteries. And in terms of product distribution, low-end products have overcapacity and high-end products are undersupply. 2. There is a certain gap between the advanced companies in Japan and South Korea. Cathode material companies with a certain capacity and reputation in the world are mainly concentrated in Japan, China and South Korea. The scale of cathode material companies in other countries in the world is generally small and their products are relatively single. Therefore, the above Three countries recognized as the three giant countries in the global cathode material industry. Japan and South Korea have developed early in the lithium battery cathode material industry. In recent years, they have been committed to high-end cathode material products such as ternary materials. In China, due to various reasons, the lithium battery cathode material industry has concentrated on its development in the past. Lithium iron phosphate, with the development of the new energy automobile industry in the past two years, the state and enterprises have gradually paid attention to the development of the ternary materials industry, but there is still a certain gap in technology from advanced Japanese and Korean companies. 3. Replacement risks The lithium battery cathode material industry has a fast product update and continuous improvement in performance requirements. In addition, although alternative technologies such as fuel cells, lithium-sulfur batteries, and lithium-air batteries are still far from large-scale industrialization, it does not rule out the risk of technological innovation replacing existing products in the future. Evaluation method for the quality of lithium battery cathode materials. The cathode material should have a higher oxidation-reduction potential, so that the battery has a higher output voltage; lithium ions can be reversibly inserted and deintercalated in the cathode material in a large amount to make the battery have High capacity; during the lithium ion insertion/deintercalation process, the structure of the positive electrode material should be as unchanged or slightly changed as possible to ensure good battery cycle performance; the oxidation-reduction potential of the positive electrode is in the intercalation/deintercalation of lithium ions The change in the process should be as small as possible so that the voltage of the lithium battery will not change significantly to ensure the battery is charged and discharged steadily; the positive electrode material of the lithium battery should have a higher conductivity, which enables the battery to be charged and discharged with high current. The above are the favorable and unfavorable factors for the development of the lithium battery cathode material industry. The choice and quality of positive and negative materials directly determine the performance and price of lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, the research of cheap, high-performance positive and negative materials has always been the focus of the development of the lithium battery industry.