Why do giant manufacturers snap up cobalt materials?

However, we often see the emergence of some new battery technology, but it is still too far to really large-scale commercial use. In other words, it will be the future of lithium batteries.

In order to protect the environment, more and more countries and regions still push new energy vehicles, so this has forced the demand for lithium batteries. To make lithium batteries, cobalt must be included. Although scientists can change the design method or replace some elements with other elements, cobalt alone is difficult to replace, which is the key to doubling its price each year.

A potential problem is that most of the world's cobalt ore is produced as a by-product of other metals. In 2017, about 69 % of the world's cobalt ore was obtained with copper mining, and another 29 % was a by-product of nickel. So the supply of cobalt depends largely on changes in the copper and nickel markets.

In order to grab better resources, many giants, including Apple, rushed to buy cobalt in the hope that they would not be stuck with lithium batteries.

For the future of lithium batteries, Marc Grynberg, head of Umicore Materials, said: No element can increase energy density better than nickel, and no element better than cobalt can stabilize all energy. Therefore, it will not happen in the next 230 years. Lithium batteries are still king.

According to previous sources, mobile phone manufacturers have prepared graphene batteries, which is a new generation of commercially available batteries. The biggest advantage is that the battery storage capacity at the same volume is about 45 % of that of lithium batteries. However, it can be completed in 12 minutes and can maintain high stability in an environment up to 60 degrees Celsius. For now, it's time to wait.

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