Panasonic of Japan set off the biggest revolution in lithium batteries

On May 30th Panasonic announced that it would develop cobalt-free car batteries.

"We are already reducing the use of cobalt in battery manufacturing; In the near future, we will reduce the use of cobalt to zero.

The price of cobalt has risen in recent years, and has multiplied several times, as global demand has expanded and reserves have dried up.

Previously, cobalt was mainly used in the production of high-temperature alloys such as blades, impellers, conduits, jet engines, rocket engines andspecial components of gas turbines, with low demand. Demand for cobalt has grown rapidly in recent years as it is used in lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones and cars.

More than half of the world's production of cobalt is now used to make lithium-ion batteries, and about a quarter of that is used in electronic devices such as Smartphones. Cobalt has also been increasingly used in electric car batteries in recent years. It takes about 8 grams of refined cobalt to make a Smartphone, but it takes more than 1,000 times as much to make a car battery.

With the development of electric vehicles in various countries, the increasing demand for cobalt aggravates the shortage of cobalt resources.

As one of the important raw materials of lithium battery, cobalt is mainly used as the anode material of lithium battery.

So what are the difficulties in the development of cobalt-free batteries?

Instead of cobalt, battery makers tend to use more nickel to increase the energy density of their batteries. These materials are also often referred to as high nickel ternary materials. However, when the amount of nickel is increased, the structural stability of the corresponding electrode material will be reduced, which will lead to a significant reduction in battery cycle life and safety.

Some lithium batteries do not contain cobalt, and the main alternative materials are lithium iron phosphate and lithium magnate. Byd and ningde, for example, used lithium iron phosphate in the early days. Although these materials are relatively cheap compared to cobalt, the amount of material needed to maintain battery capacity is also large. It is also difficult to recycle these materials later.

Although the world's top battery makers are scaling back the amount of cobalt in lithium-ion batteries, many are forced to use it because of the stability and capacity constraints of existing ternary materials.

Panasonic is the exclusive battery supplier to the Tesla Model3. Almost all of Tesla's batteries come from the Nevada super plant the two companies co-founded.

In early may, Tesla announced that the battery pack in the Model3 had achieved the highest energy density. In Tesla's car batteries, there was a significant decrease in cobalt and an increase in nickel, but the battery's thermal stability was not compromised.

As well as increasing the amount of rare minerals in its batteries, Panasonic is also trying to contract customers to avoid the risk to the company in part from higher prices for essential materials.

At a meeting on May 30, YoshioIto, head of Panasonic's automotive battery business, also said that Panasonic would work closely with Tesla to ramp up production of its battery packs to meet the Model3's target of 5,000 a week by the end of June.

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