{"id":46401,"date":"2021-01-11T13:54:14","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=46401"},"modified":"2021-01-11T13:54:14","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T03:24:14","slug":"battery-cathode-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/battery-cathode-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Table Salt To Make Better, Cheaper Li-ion Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Salt

Table salt could hold the key to bigger, cheaper Li-ion batteries.<\/p><\/div>\n

J<\/span>ust before Australia went into its traditional summer stupor, someone from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in America got in touch with me about research into single-crystal technologies for Lithium-ion batteries.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The twin challenges of Li-ion batteries are to improve their energy performance while making them cheaper, and that\u2019s behind PNNL\u2019s materials science. The focus of<\/span>\u00a0this project<\/a> (published in <\/span>Science Magazine<\/span><\/i>\u00a0here<\/a>) is to overcome the problems involved in making nickel-rich single-crystal cathode components. As the PNNL press release explains, increasing the nickel in a cathode lets a battery store more energy, but too much nickel and you get an unstable cathode.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other focus of the PNNL work is to overcome the problem of the cracking that polycrystal cathodes can suffer, since those cracks shorten battery life.<\/span><\/p>\n

From PNNL\u2019s media statement:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently the most common nickel-rich cathode is in the form of polycrystals \u2013 aggregates of many nanocrystals in one larger particle. These carry advantages for storing and discharging energy faster. But the polycrystals sometimes break down during repeated cycling. This can leave much of the surface area exposed to electrolyte, accelerating unwanted chemical reactions induced by high nickel content and generating gas. This irreversible damage results in a battery with a nickel-rich cathode that fails faster and raises safety concerns.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That problem is worse when a crystal is rich in nickel, because nickel can introduce unwanted chemical reactions, PNNL said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cathodes made out of nickel-rich monocrystals should avoid that particular challenge, but monocrystals suffer their own degradation problems, as PNNL battery group team leader (and corresponding author of the <\/span>Science<\/span><\/i> paper) Jie Xiao explained to me in December.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first issue is fabrication.<\/span><\/p>\n

“To grow single crystals, you need a higher temperature, and that means lower performance”.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cLithium salts evaporate at high temperature – the longer you hold the crystal at a high temperature, the more lithium you lose. That will lead to lower capacity.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing – because we\u2019re talking about nickel-rich crystals, at high temperature, you don\u2019t get the ideal structure. You will get nickel oxide.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xiao\u2019s team at PNNL decided to take a different approach to fabricating the monocrystals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe used sodium chloride – table salt – as the ration medium to allow the crystal to grow,\u201d Xiao explained. \u201cThat helps lower the temperature, and reduce the [crystal growth] time.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The other important discovery the team made relates to what causes a monocrystal to break down, a process they described as \u201ccrystal gliding\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiao again: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we found is that the single crystal – they do not break down into small pieces. Instead the layers of the structure are gliding towards each other.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is illustrated in the following animation:
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Monocrystal<\/p>\n

What\u2019s encouraging is that through the group\u2019s new-found understanding of the process, they also found it can be alleviated with relatively simple measures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gliding, Xiao told me, is reversible, and only causes irreversible damage after either extensive cycling, or charging to very high voltages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cycling is just life for a battery, but battery charge voltage is easy to manage. Limiting the per-cell voltage to 4.2V helps prevent gliding, Xiao told me – and that\u2019s the normal charge window for Li-ion batteries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Crystal structure is the other way to manage gliding, Xiao explained. 3.5 microns turns out to be a critical crystal size, at which gliding is mitigated or eliminated; and modifying the monocrystal\u2019s symmetry also helped.<\/span><\/p>\n

The payoff of this work? The PNNL team estimates that a single crystal nickel-rich cathode holds 25% more energy compared to the Li-ion batteries currently used in EVs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Xiao said further work will focus on scaling up their fabrication techniques, using other discoveries to be published in the future to replace the sodium chloride growth medium.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just before Australia went into its traditional summer stupor, someone from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in America got in touch with me about research into single-crystal technologies for Lithium-ion batteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":46493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battery-storage","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUsing Table Salt To Make Better, Cheaper Li-ion Batteries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The twin challenges of Li-ion batteries are to improve their energy performance while making them cheaper. 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Regulators and policy-makers almost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Battery Storage"","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gas based electricity generation - game over?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gas-game-over.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gas-game-over.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gas-game-over.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gas-game-over.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gas-game-over.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":68745,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/lithium-battery-safety-mb2748\/","url_meta":{"origin":46401,"position":1},"title":"ACCC Looking Into Lithium-Ion Battery Safety","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"December 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is encouraging feedback on ways to reduce fire and safety risks relating to lithium-ion batteries; including those used in solar energy storage applications. Lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous; appearing in everything from hand-held devices to solar energy storage and electric cars. Generally speaking, lithium-ion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Solar & Storage News"","block_context":{"text":"General Solar & Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lithium ion battery safety","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lithium-battery-safety.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lithium-battery-safety.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lithium-battery-safety.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/lithium-battery-safety.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7206,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/aquion-salt-water-battery\/","url_meta":{"origin":46401,"position":2},"title":"Aquion Battery Review: Safe… But Limited Power & Efficiency","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"August 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"UPDATE MARCH 2017:\u00a0As of March 8, 2017, Aquion has filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code UPDATE JULY 2017 : Aquion Energy is resuming operations Keen on storing your excess solar in a big battery? Worried about having a big box of toxic and\/or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Battery Storage"","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DIY Salt Water Battery","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SaltWater.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SaltWater.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/SaltWater.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":85684,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/home-battery-fires-mb2977\/","url_meta":{"origin":46401,"position":3},"title":"Home Battery Fires In Australia – What Are The Facts?","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"August 5, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Lithium-ion battery fires are on the increase, but how many of these incidents involve solar batteries? Li-ion batteries are ubiquitous; used in everything from tiny sensors to hand-held electronics, scooters, home battery systems, electric vehicles, and large-scale renewable energy storage facilities with thousands of megawatt-hours capacity. An advantage of Li-ion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Solar & Storage News"","block_context":{"text":"General Solar & Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Home battery fire","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/home-battery-fire-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/home-battery-fire-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/home-battery-fire-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/home-battery-fire-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/home-battery-fire-2.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28320,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/gelion-endure-battery-mb0957\/","url_meta":{"origin":46401,"position":4},"title":"Gelion Endure – A Non-Flow Zinc Bromine Battery","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"February 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A new type of energy storage platform was put to work at the University of Sydney last night by Gelion Technologies. A Gelion Endure battery is providing energy storage for a solar powered mobile light tower at the University and over the next year other towers will be rolled out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Solar & Storage News"","block_context":{"text":"General Solar & Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gelion Endure battery","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/gelion-endure-battery.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/gelion-endure-battery.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/gelion-endure-battery.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/gelion-endure-battery.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/gelion-endure-battery.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":67433,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/lead-vs-lithium-batteries\/","url_meta":{"origin":46401,"position":5},"title":"Lead-Acid Vs Lithium-Ion Batteries. Is Lead Dead?","author":"Anthony Bennett","date":"January 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"We live in an age where your camper trailer can power an induction cooktop, a mine can go off-grid, and giant grid-scale batteries are being announced almost weekly. These developments in mobile, remote area and utility-scale energy storage would be impractical or impossible with lead-acid batteries. The performance of lithium-ion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Battery Storage"","block_context":{"text":"Battery Storage","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/battery-storage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lead-acid vs. Lithium-ion batteries","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/old-lead-acid.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/old-lead-acid.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/old-lead-acid.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/old-lead-acid.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/old-lead-acid.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46401"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46498,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46401\/revisions\/46498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}