Battery & Electrification Technology - November/December 2024 - 22

New Battery Cathode Material Could Revolutionize EV
Market and Energy Storage
A multi-institutional research team has developed a new, low-cost cathode that could radically improve
lithium-ion batteries - potentially transforming the electric vehicle market and large-scale energy storage systems.
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
A
multi-institutional research team led
by Hailong Chen, an Associate Professor
with appointments in the George W.
Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
and the School of Materials Science and
Engineering, has developed a new, low-cost
cathode that could radically improve lithium-ion
batteries (LIBs) - potentially transforming
the electric vehicle (EV) market and
large-scale energy storage systems.
" For a long time, people have been
looking for a lower-cost, more sustainable
alternative to existing cathode materials.
I think we've got one, " said Chen.
The revolutionary material, iron chloride
(FeCl3
), costs a mere 1-2 percent of
typical cathode materials and can store
the same amount of electricity. Cathode
materials affect capacity, energy, and efficiency,
playing a major role in a battery's
performance, lifespan, and affordability.
" Our cathode can be a game-changer, "
said Chen, whose team describes its work
in Nature Sustainability. " It would greatly
improve the EV market - and the whole
lithium-ion battery market. "
First commercialized by Sony in the
early 1990s, LIBs sparked an explosion in
personal electronics,
like smartphones
and tablets. The technology eventually
advanced to fuel electric vehicles, providing
a reliable, rechargeable, high-density
energy source. But unlike personal electronics,
large-scale energy users like EVs
are especially sensitive to the cost of LIBs.
Batteries are currently responsible for
about 50 percent of an EV's total cost,
which makes these clean-energy cars more
expensive than their internal combustion,
greenhouse-gas-spewing cousins.
The
Chen team's invention could change that.
Compared to old-fashioned alkaline
and lead-acid batteries, LIBs store more
energy in a smaller package and power a
device longer between charges. But LIBs
contain expensive metals, including semiprecious
elements like cobalt and nickel,
and they have a high manufacturing cost.
22
Hailong Chen and Zhantao Liu present a new, low-cost cathode for all-solid-state lithium-ion
batteries. (Image: Jerry Grillo)
been successfully
So far, only four types of cathodes have
commercialized for
LIBs. Chen's would be the fifth, and it
would represent a big step forward in
battery technology: the development of
an all-solid-state LIB.
Conventional LIBs use liquid electrolytes
to transport lithium ions for storing
and releasing energy. They have hard limits
on how much energy can be stored, and
they can leak and catch fire. But all-solidstate
LIBs use solid electrolytes, dramatically
boosting a battery's efficiency and
reliability, making it safer, and capable of
holding more energy. These batteries, still
in the development and testing phase,
would be a considerable improvement.
As researchers and manufacturers
across the planet race to make all-solidstate
technology practical, Chen and his
collaborators have developed an affordable
and sustainable solution. With the
FeCl3
cathode, a solid electrolyte, and a
lithium metal anode, the cost of their
whole battery system is 30-40 percent of
current LIBs.
" This could not only make EVs much
cheaper than internal combustion cars,
but it provides a new and promising form
of large-scale energy storage, enhancing
the resilience of the electrical grid, " Chen
said. " In
addition, our cathode would
greatly improve the sustainability and
supply chain stability of the EV market. "
Chen's interest in FeCl3
as a cathode
material originated with his lab's research
into solid electrolyte materials. Starting in
2019, his lab tried to make solid-state
batteries using chloride-based solid electrolytes
with traditional commercial oxide-based
cathodes. It didn't go well - the
cathode and electrolyte materials didn't
get along. The researchers thought a chloride-based
cathode could provide a better
pairing with the chloride electrolyte to
offer better battery performance.
" We found a candidate (FeCl3
) worth
trying, as its crystal structure is potentially
suitable for storing and transporting
ions, and fortunately, it functioned as
we expected, " said Chen.
Currently, the most popularly used
cathodes in EVs are oxides and require
a gigantic amount of costly nickel and
cobalt, heavy elements that can be toxic
and pose an environmental challenge.
Battery & Electrification Technology, November/December 2024

Battery & Electrification Technology - November/December 2024

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