Briefly introduce a new breakthrough in fuel cell catalysts

But what I want to emphasize is that the results of these forward-looking technologies are still quite a distance from industrialization. Of course, this is not to say that the research of domestic experts is divorced from industrialization, but that lithium battery itself is far from the next generation of battery technology.

At present, the domestic consensus is that 300 wh/kg is realized by high-nickel ternary positive electrode and silicon-carbon negative electrode in the near future; medium-term (2025) is based on lithium-rich manganese-based/high-capacity Si-C negative electrode to realize monomer 400 wh/kg; It is to develop lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries to achieve a monomer specific energy of 500 wh/kg.

Among them, the recent high-nickel ternary/silicon-carbon anode system has already existed. The silicon-carbon anode material and the 811 ternary cathode material have even formed a certain industrial scale, but in actual application, there is no domestic vehicle, the electric car that produces the battery of the system, not to mention the scale.

That is to say, in the "consensus" of domestic experts, the goal of 300 wh / kg, 400 wh / kg, 500 wh / kg is achieved, rather than large-scale application. Therefore, the lithium battery technology that is frequently heard in the media and forums predicts that consumers will have to make another discount.

In fact, most of the power batteries currently used on the road is the 523 ternary systems that appeared many years ago. Therefore, from the application side, the most imminent improvement is not the innovation of lithium batteries (urgent use is not used), but how to maximize the use of the current system of power batteries.

But then again, in the long run, lithium battery forward-looking technology is directly related to whether the domestic new energy industry can achieve cornering overtaking, because even if automatic driving is achieved, the importance of the power system will not change.

Let's take a look at some of the new technologies and events in the lithium battery industry this week.

1. Low-cost carbon-based electrocatalysts significantly increase the energy density of fuel cells

According to foreign media reports, the research team at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and Queen Mary University in London produced a low-cost carbon-based electrocatalyst that can be used in anion exchange membrane fuel cells, which helps to increase the energy density of fuel cells. To 703mW/cm2. In comparison, the earlier energy density in this field was only 50mW/cm2.

This type of catalyst uses inexpensive halloysite as a template, using urea and furfural as their nitrogen source and carbon source respectively. Furfural is an organic chemical that can be made from oats, wheat bran or sawdust. Then, the above material was processed into a black fine powder and used as a nitrogen-doped carbon electrocatalyst.

Comments: Fuel cell catalysts have always been the focus of research in the field of fuel cells. After all, the cost of platinum electrodes is too high, and the low fuel cell power of many people is also due to the reduction of the cost of platinum (the fuel cell power density can be passed through the platinum electrode Linear superposition), fuel cells need to be used in large-scale applications, new catalysts are essential, in addition, life is also a major constraint on fuel cells. However, looking at the research, the new catalyst raw materials are all from crops, and there is an unreasonable local interest in the inexplicable (think of the endless reports of the use of crops to study lithium batteries).

2, new technology makes lithium battery "rejuvenation"

Citing Straitstimes news, researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have enabled lithium batteries to recover 95% of their usable capacity in 10 hours by adding battery electrodes. Specifically, the new technology restores battery performance by adding electrodes to remove "impurity" substances that affect battery performance.

If this technology can be commercialized, it will bring great benefits to the electric vehicle industry. At present, the number of cycles of lithium batteries for electric vehicles is still unsatisfactory. After a few years of actual use, the battery capacity loss is quite large, and the cost of replacing batteries has led to a surge in vehicle use costs. The new battery repair technology can greatly reduce the frequency of battery replacement and improve the performance and cost performance of electric vehicles.

Comments: In fact, the author cannot imagine the principle, increase the polar film within 10 hours to remove battery impurities, you can restore the battery 95% capacity. It seems that suddenly someone has said that they have crossed rice and after one month of eating, they can eliminate impurities in the human body, and make the 60-year-old rejuvenate to 30 years old. In fact, the process of lithium battery capacity decay is a process of accumulating a small deviation, so it is easy to go back to the past, probably only a way to brag.

3, the new anode material 2 times to achieve 300 charge and discharge

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology announced that the institute and the Seoul National University have used lithium-rich manganese-nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (LMR) materials to produce new anode materials that can overcome surface heating. This technology can improve the performance of electric vehicle batteries. The research was published in the international academic journal NanoLetters.

LMR materials have higher energy density and safety than other anode materials, but the crystal structure will be unstable during charge and discharge. This phenomenon mainly occurs on the surface of anode material particles, which has limitations in commercial applications. The Korean technology keeps the surface of the LMR anode material stable, thereby forming a surface structure that rapidly transmits lithium ions, suppressing the heating phenomenon of the material, and the manufacturing process is simple and convenient.

The research results show that the new material maintains its original characteristics when it is subjected to high-speed charge and discharge more than 300 times in 2 minutes. This technology can shorten the charging time and increase the driving distance. At the same time, the synthesis method and improvement scheme of the anode material can be applied to the next generation electric vehicle and the medium and large energy storage system.

Comments: More than 300 high-speed charge and discharge in 2 minutes, that is, an average of 2.5 seconds of charge and discharge, the actual charge is about 1 second? This is not the fast charge and flash charge that is often said in the industry. The author suddenly remembered that the black technology of a Japanese research institute that claimed to be fully charged for 1 second was used in the same way as this research in Korea. Of course, the technique I mentioned here does not refer to technology, but to the actual measurement method, that is, does not really constitute a complete battery system for experimentation.

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