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Because of these energy storage technologies, the button battery cr1620 throne will be unstable?

If lithium-ion batteries could be anthropomorphic, they must be thinking: "My throne...is unstable...".

Isn't it true? Every now and then, various laboratories claim that they have developed new battery technologies, one with lower cost than the other, some more environmentally friendly, some safer, and some with longer life... Is the era of lithium-ion batteries coming to an end?

Today, let's see what battery technology is gradually replacing lithium-ion batteries and becoming mainstream.

Sodium-ion batteries with ubiquitous raw materials

Lithium-ion batteries are good in every way, but they are too expensive.

Lithium (Li), the electrode material of lithium-ion batteries, is relatively rare, and the cost of mining and refining is very high. So is it possible to find an electrode material that replaces lithium in common materials?

Salt (NaCl), sounds good. After all, the earth has vast oceans and salt lakes as sources of sodium salts. If sodium can be extracted as an electrode material, the cost will drop significantly.

The concept of sodium-ion batteries started in the 1980s, almost at the same time as lithium-ion batteries. The working principle of sodium-ion batteries is similar to that of lithium-ion batteries. When charging, Na+ is released from the positive electrode material and embedded in the negative electrode material through the electrolyte. At the same time, electrons are transferred to the negative electrode through the external circuit to maintain charge balance; the opposite is true when discharging.

People have always believed that although sodium-ion batteries have cost advantages, their energy density is not as good as that of lithium-ion batteries, and they can only be used in fields with low energy density requirements, such as grid energy storage, peak load regulation, and wind power generation energy storage. However, the sodium-ion batteries developed by researchers at Stanford University recently broke through this cognition.

The sodium-ion batteries they developed can store energy equivalent to lithium-ion batteries at less than 80% of the cost!

This battery uses a sodium salt electrode design, and positively charged sodium ions will swim to the negatively charged phosphorus positive electrode-the reserves of these two elements are very abundant in nature. In the end, their sodium-ion battery achieved a reversible capacity of up to 484mAh/g and an energy density of 726Wh/kg. The new battery is said to have an energy efficiency of more than 87%. As for the most important cost, the researchers claim that they can achieve a storage capacity comparable to that of lithium-ion batteries with an investment of less than 80%.

Next, the team will invest more energy in the phosphorus anode to squeeze out more performance from the sodium-ion battery. Compared with lithium-ion, the team also hopes to further improve the volume energy density of sodium-ion batteries. The details of this study have been published in the recently published journal Nature Energy.

In fact, many companies have already made efforts in sodium-ion batteries, such as Toyota.

News reports say that Toyota's new battery uses sodium-based compounds as the positive electrode of sodium-ion batteries, and the voltage of the battery is 30% higher than that of lithium-ion batteries. This battery technology can effectively increase the range of electric vehicles, up to an astonishing 1,000 kilometers, and at a lower price. It is reported that Toyota is accelerating its research and expects to put it into practical use around 2020. Once commercialized, the battery will be cheaper than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Liquid flow battery with only 1/5 of the cost of lithium-ion battery

There is such a battery, when discharging, it will inhale air from the outside, and when charging, it can expel air, which is very similar to human breathing.

According to cnBeta.COM, researchers at MIT have developed a liquid flow battery that can "breathe air" and store energy for a long time, and at the same energy density, its cost is only 1/5 of that of lithium-ion battery.

Can liquid be used as a battery? Let's take a look at the principle: The characteristic of this rechargeable liquid flow battery is that it uses liquid "cathode electrolyte" and "anode liquid" as the two poles of the battery, and stores or releases energy through the back and forth movement of ions.

Among them, sulfur dissolved in water is used as the anode liquid, and oxygen-containing liquid salt solution is the cathode electrolyte. The cost of sulfur, water, and salt materials is very low. For large-scale energy storage grid systems, cost reduction is the key to popularizing and long-term operation of renewable energy.

According to reports, this battery is now only the size of a coffee cup. If it is designed and applied to large-scale systems, the energy storage cost per kilowatt-hour is expected to be controlled between US$20 and US$30 (other energy storage systems may cost up to US$100 per kilowatt-hour). The next research plan will be to improve the efficiency and service life of the battery.

But in fact, liquid flow batteries are no longer a new technology. They have appeared as early as the 1960s.

Take the more well-known all-vanadium liquid flow battery as an example. The companies that produce all-vanadium liquid flow batteries worldwide include UniEnergy Technologies in the United States, Gildemeister in Austria, Sumitomo Electric Industries in Japan, and Dalian Rongke Energy Storage Technology Development Co., Ltd. in my country.

Compared with lithium-ion batteries, liquid flow batteries can be large or small, with flexible design and scalability. As shown in the figure below, the power that vanadium liquid flow batteries can withstand depends on the size of the battery stack, and the amount of electricity is proportional to the size of the energy storage tank. Lithium-ion batteries are of fixed size and difficult to expand in scale.

Liquid flow battery structure diagram

In addition, compared with lithium-ion batteries, liquid flow batteries have a longer life and are extremely safe. There is no risk of fire or explosion, and there will be no safety issues even if they encounter high currents.

However, the density of liquid flow batteries is extremely low, and this type of battery is in liquid form, so the large footprint becomes its limitation. In this way, will the new liquid flow battery the size of a coffee cup mentioned above become a revolutionary invention?

Aluminum batteries with longer service life and faster charging

In fact, aluminum batteries have always been a battery technology that people are optimistic about because of their great potential for energy density. But so far, aluminum batteries have only been used as metal fuel power lithium batteries.

For example, the 100-kilogram aluminum-air battery demonstrated by Alcoa Canada and Israeli company Phinergy stored enough electricity to travel 3,000 kilometers. Aluminum batteries only start after the lithium-ion battery is exhausted, so they can be used for a long time, and only need to be filled with clean water every month. Usually, after reaching the limit of use in about a year, you can go to the service station to replace the fully charged aluminum battery. It's a bit like a disposable battery.

Why aren't aluminum batteries used as rechargeable batteries?

On the one hand, the cycle life is poor, and on the other hand, the charging speed is too slow and impractical. Another fatal drawback is that the aluminum ions in the electrolyte are unstable and can easily cause chemical reactions that can be dangerous. These reasons have prevented aluminum batteries from being put into large-scale use.

But don't lose heart. Nature magazine published a study on aluminum-ion batteries, saying that "the prototype of a new battery has been seen":

This aluminum-ion battery contains two electrodes, a negatively charged anode made of aluminum and a positively charged graphite cathode. The electrolyte is actually liquid salt at room temperature. The rechargeable aluminum battery that was finally developed can produce a voltage of 2 volts. This is higher than the voltage that any aluminum battery can produce, although it is only half of a typical lithium-ion battery.

Researchers say that if the cathode material is improved, the voltage and energy density should eventually be increased. In this way, aluminum batteries will become an alternative new technology: inexpensive electrodes, safe, fast charging, flexible and long life.

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