GUANGZHOU NPP POWER CO., LTD
NO.67, Lianglong Road
Huashan Town
Huadu District
Guangzhou
Guangdong Province
P. R. China
Tel: +86 20-37887390
Email: info@npplithium.com
GUANGZHOU NPP POWER CO., LTD
NO.67, Lianglong Road
Huashan Town
Huadu District
Guangzhou
Guangdong Province
P. R. China
Tel: +86 20-37887390
Email: info@npplithium.com
Sodium ion battery vs Lithium ion battery, Looking at the whole country, the popularity of sodium ion batteries is rising rapidly. As the “king” of lithium batteries, CATL released its first generation of sodium ion batteries, and claimed that the energy density of a single cell can reach 160Wh/kg, and the batteries will be industrialized this year; Recently, Jiangsu Azure Corporation, which is also a leader in lithium batteries industry, also announced that it intends to jointly develop cylindrical sodium ion batteries with Zhongke Haina, and the latter is the first company in China to focus on the development of sodium ion batteries, its valuation has skyrocketed several times in the latest round of financing.
Leading industries in this field have begun to invest capital in the research of sodium ion batteries, making the competition between lithium ion and sodium ion batteries reappear.
Why “lithium”? Lithium element is located in the upper left corner and is the first metal element. Lithium itself has a small atomic weight, its activity is high, and the electrode potential is the most ‘negative’, so batteries with higher energy density can be made theoretically.
According to statistics, since 2014, China has been the world’s largest lithium ion battery production and manufacturing country. In 2014, China’s overall lithium ion battery shipments accounted for 42.1% of the world, and this figure reached 59.4% in 2021. Behind this, the energy density of ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries reached respectively an average of 280Wh/kg and 170Wh/kg, the cycle life of the battery system of key enterprises exceeds 5,000 times, which has obvious advantages.
Nowadays, the lithium ion battery industry is becoming more and more mature, which can be said to be “in the ascendant”, and thanks to the demand of the downstream industries such as new energy vehicles is strong, the production capacity of lithium ion batteries is increasing rapidly, and the technology is also constantly improving. And its mainstream position is difficult to be shaked move.
Lithium is an ideal material for batteries, but it is not abundant in the earth’s crust. The tight supply of lithium resources has caused the price of lithium carbonate to rise steadily in the past two years, from tens of thousands of yuan per ton jumping to hundreds of thousands of yuan per ton, which has driven up the price of the entire industry chain, and has obvious side effects on the healthy development of the industry.
Sodium is one of the most abundant elements on the earth. For example, there is a large amount of sodium salt in seawater. Its mining and preparation process is also simpler, so it can effectively solve the problems of insufficient resources and uneven distribution, and has advantages in terms of cost. There are obvious sodium cost advantages when the price of lithium is getting higher and higher.
In addition, the physical and chemical properties of sodium are similar to lithium, which is also an important reason for attracting researchers. “On the periodic table, sodium, it is a ‘neighborhood’ with lithium and they are both the metal element of group I. ” Gao Jian said that since they are both “rocking chair batteries”, the principle is the same. And the success of lithium ion batteries also provides many mature ideas for the development of sodium ion batteries, such as in the design of the material system, most of today’s sodium ion batteries refer to lithium ion batteries.
Although the physical and chemical properties are similar, sodium has obvious shortcomings in front of lithium. Due to the greater atomic weight, the sodium ion has a larger radius than lithium. “To store the same amount of electricity, the number of ions that need to migrate is the same, but the weight required for sodium ion batteries is heavier.
Cathode materials have the greatest impact on energy density. According to the composition, the mainstream sodium ion battery cathode materials can be divided into transition metal oxide, polyanion compound and Prussian blue compound system, which can roughly correspond to the ternary of lithium ion batteries cathode materials, lithium iron phosphate materials and organic materials. “Lithium ion batteries provide ideas, and sodium ion batteries still need. Adjust according to your own characteristics.
In addition to pursuing energy density, cycle life is also an important goal. The charging process of sodium ion batteries is to insert sodium ions into the negative electrode. Due to the larger size of sodium ions, it is more difficult to insert the negative electrode, and the cycle life is naturally longer than that of lithium ions. Batteries are shorter.
Similar to a lithium battery, a sodium ion battery is a “rocking chair” secondary battery that also includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator, an electrolyte, and a current collector.
The three positive electrode routes have their own strengths and may coexist in the future. The preparation method of the layered oxide system is simple, the specific capacity and voltage are high, but the stability in air is poor. The polyanion system has good rate performance and cycle performance, but the conductivity is generally poor. Carbon coating and doping are used to increase the energy density.
Prussian blue compounds have good structural stability and rate capability, but there are problems such as difficult removal of crystal water and dissolution of transition metal ions. The layered oxide system has a high degree of maturity and is expected to be the first to realize industrialization. The Prussian blue type has low cost, high specific capacity and energy density, excellent rate performance, and great potential in the future. The preparation techniques of Prussian blue compound cathode materials mainly include: co-precipitation method, hydrothermal synthesis method, ball milling method, etc. The co-precipitation method is the most mainstream synthesis method, with low production cost and easy adjustment of the synthesis process, but it takes a long time and is prone to crystal lattice defects and crystal water. The hydrothermal synthesis method can speed up the reaction rate and the product has high dispersibility, but it requires high production equipment. The ball milling method has a simple operation process and can reduce the crystal water of the material, but the particles are easy to agglomerate and easily mixed with impurities.
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