A brief introduction to the patented technology of lithium battery ternary materials

Recently, at the Sixth Council Meeting of the Sixth Session of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, Secretary-General Liu Yanlong particularly emphasized the layout of patented technology for lithium battery ternary materials. He pointed out that under the general trend of ternary lithium batteries, especially the high-nickel three-yuan hot industry, many domestic cathode materials companies are facing huge foreign patent fees in their development. In this regard, the Association will hold a symposium in the near future to take countermeasures to alleviate the cost pressures in the development of enterprises.

Then, what is the current status of the domestic lithium battery ternary material patent technology layout?

The core patent is to "turn over the road"

Some professionals have statistics on domestic and foreign patents in the field of ternary materials. The results show that: First of all, the development of domestic ternary materials is late, the basic and core patents are lacking, and there is still a big gap between Japanese and Korean companies and 3M companies in the United States.

For example, on November 15, 2005, 3M Company obtained US patent US6964828B2 and its related family CN100403585C for the authorization of NiCoMn ternary materials, which mainly limited the content of Ni in NiCoMn, and became the basic core patent of ternary materials. The development of ternary materials in China's lithium battery industry.

Secondly, the patents around the modification of ternary materials are mainly to improve the electrochemical performance, but the safety and cost issues have not been effectively broken. In contrast to the rapid growth in patents for improving electrochemical performance, the increase in the number of applications for ternary materials and the reduction in cost are slower. This also shows that the safety and cost of ternary materials have not been effectively broken through the significant increase in R&D investment and the importance of battery safety.

Taking the invention patent "preparation method of titanium sol-coated modified ternary positive electrode material" in a domestic research institute as an example, the invention patent can modify the ternary positive electrode material by optimizing the coating process, which can effectively improve the first coulomb of the material. Efficiency and discharge specific capacity, but no significant improvement in other aspects such as the cycle performance of the material. Moreover, the coating process requires a large amount of alcohol, and the requirements for process equipment and workshop conditions (explosion-proof workshop) are high, and the recycling of alcohol requires additional processing costs.

Based on the above analysis, Battery China Network believes that there are two points that need to be paid attention to by domestic cathode materials enterprises: First, the domestic ternary materials patent applications are relatively scattered, especially the leading enterprises are less involved, the overall research atmosphere is not strong, and domestic enterprises need to pay attention to the positive electrode. The research and development of materials and the protection of intellectual property rights; second, the safety and cost of ternary materials have great room for development. The layout of foreign applicants is not perfect. If domestic enterprises can increase R&D investment in these areas and master the core patents as soon as possible, it is possible to achieve “curve overtaking” in the field of ternary materials.

Patent licensing or helpless

In the industry consensus, in addition to the active emphasis on independent R&D and intellectual property protection, domestic cathode materials companies are also an option for sustainable industrial development. Battery China Network found that the recent patent layout of cathode materials companies is as follows:

In January 2018 and November 2017, BASF announced the granting of sub-licensing for Ruixiang New Materials and Peking University's first patent on nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathode materials in the Argonne National Laboratory. After authorization, the two companies can manufacture, use, sell, and promise to sell, distribute, and import nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode materials in the US market.

On January 29, Dow Chemical Company signed a technology licensing agreement with Shanghai Huayi (Group) Co., Ltd., which does not exclusively authorize the core technology of cathode materials for two lithium-ion batteries: lithium iron phosphate (LMFP) and lithium nickel. Manganese cobalt oxide (NMC).

From the above licensing information, with the domestic power battery and ternary materials enterprises accelerating into the international market, some domestic ternary materials companies have to strengthen the patent layout to obtain relevant operational freedom and cooperate with battery customers to deal with foreign harshness. Qualification approval.

Tang Shunguo, Chairman and General Manager of Ruixiang New Materials, said, “We highly respect intellectual property rights and attach importance to the patent sub-licensing of nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode materials. This sub-license is of strategic importance to us and our downstream customers. ""

In fact, there are very few patents purchased by domestic ternary materials companies. There are two main reasons: First, the cost of patent purchase is high, and SMEs can hardly afford it. Second, domestic policies are relatively loose, especially the relevant legal system is not perfect, and some enterprises are lucky.

The industry believes that patent licensing and patent disputes between domestic and foreign companies will become more and more normal. Therefore, whether domestic enterprises adopt patent licensing or take a detour, accelerating patent layout is a necessary guarantee for sustainable development of the industry.

Inspiration from Life and Death of Lithium Iron Phosphate

There is no doubt that domestic ternary materials companies can eliminate the risk of patent infringement lawsuits in order to become bigger and stronger on a global scale.

Those who have not forgotten the past, the people familiar with the development of the domestic lithium battery industry must remember the "patent invalidation case" of the lithium iron phosphate battery industry in 2012 - Canada Quebec Hydropower Company and other three claimed to have patents for lithium iron phosphate battery technology The company, suing the China Patent Reexamination Board for invalidation of its patented lithium iron phosphate battery technology is invalid.

It is understood that the Canadian company's patent application covers almost all of the current production technology of lithium iron phosphate battery. If you follow this patent, most of the domestic battery manufacturers are infringing. Moreover, if the foreign party wins the case, it means that if the Chinese battery manufacturer produces lithium iron phosphate battery in the future, it will need to pay the patent holder to the patent holder. The foreign party’s asking price is also high: one-time payment of $10 million in patent entry fees or $2,500 per ton of lithium iron phosphate. Fortunately, this patent lawsuit, which is crucial for the development of China's lithium iron phosphate battery industry and the new energy automobile industry, has failed.

However, many of the experiences and lessons in this lawsuit are worthy of consideration by colleagues in the domestic lithium battery industry. Under the current development situation of new energy vehicles, the top enterprises in the domestic lithium battery industry, especially the leading enterprises that are interested in participating in the international market competition, should learn from this and further strategically lay out the core patent technology of ternary materials.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.