Ten Years Left to Redesign Lithium-Ion Batteries

[Megalith]

Researchers warn that alternatives to cobalt, nickel, and other rare metals must be found soon to meet the rising demands of electric-vehicle cells, as their scarcity is driving up prices: the former quadrupled over the past two years, from $22 to $81 per kilogram. In light of producers cutting corners and violating environmental and safety regulations, scientists and engineers are urged to explore cheap, common metals such as iron and copper as potential replacements.

The most promising alternative, in our view, is to use conversion materials in electrodes. Copper and iron fluorides and silicon react with the lithium ions. A transition metal in a conversion cathode can host up to six times more lithium atoms than one in a standard cathode. Such materials swell more to accommodate the extra lithium atoms. Cell designs must allow for this distortion.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

Wonder if I'll live long enough to see a massive resource war?
Ain't going to be pretty for our future generations with if we continue with the uncontrolled population growth and throwaway everything mentality.

 

[thebufenator]

Buy more electric power cars. Better than the rediculous amounts of dead dinosaurs left to burn

 

[Nafensoriel]

Funny story.. every single time there is a "resource shortage" there always seems to be another supply somewhere. The math behind these kinds of statements rarely reflects actual reality.

 

[dgz]

Wonder if I'll live long enough to see a massive resource war?
Ain't going to be pretty for our future generations with if we continue with the uncontrolled population growth and throwaway everything mentality.

How massive? Like apocalyptic proportions? I'd prefer aliens but looks like we're more likely to have a great zombie war :/

 

[Kor]

At some point we'll work out asteroid mining to solve this problem....

 

[86 5.0L]

Remember when there was a fossil fuel shortage and EVs would solve that scarcity problem?

Yeah...

Pepperidge farm remembers

 

[Schtask]

GRAPHENE

 

[Chaos Machine]

Wonder if I'll live long enough to see a massive resource war?
Ain't going to be pretty for our future generations with if we continue with the uncontrolled population growth and throwaway everything mentality.

Next world War will probably be over arctic resources.

 

[MV75]

There's plenty of alternatives, most never leave the lab. Supercapcitors are out there, but not enough.

 

[atp1916]

" violating environmental and safety regulations "

Time to start doing our manufacturing n crap out on Alpha Centauri or somethin.

Edit: Make asteroids great again.

 

[ChoGGi]

I thought the "scarcity" of rare metals was everyone else shutting down their rare earth mines and buying cheap (well not so much now) from China?

 

[Wiffle]

Something smells like BS...

In no way shape or form is cobalt or nickel rare, the stuff is literally a by-product of iron and copper mining. The headline and everything they say will be completely taken out of context unless you understand the "reserves" he is referring to are the rich assholes who have the money and space to sit on 10k metric tons of metals.

But wait, there's more... the quip about how electric vehicles will use up all the "reserves" people have because of batteries... well lets answer this BS article with another source of potential BS from wikipedia:

"Nickel is one of four elements (the others are iron, cobalt, and gadolinium)[7] that are ferromagnetic at approximately room temperature. Alnico permanent magnets based partly on nickel are of intermediate strength between iron-based permanent magnets and rare-earth magnets. The metal is valuable in modern times chiefly in alloys; about 68% of world production is used in stainless steel. A further 10% is used for nickel-based and copper-based alloys, 7% for alloy steels, 3% in foundries, 9% in plating and 4% in other applications, including the fast-growing battery sector.[8] As a compound, nickel has a number of niche chemical manufacturing uses, such as a catalyst for hydrogenation, cathodes for batteries, pigments and metal surface treatments.[9] Nickel is an essential nutrient for some microorganisms and plants that have enzymes with nickel as an active site."

WHAAAT!? You mean the majority of all nickel production is used to make STEEL and battery manufacturing is part of the "other" 4%. Unless all these new electric cars are being made out of stainless steel, I don't see how battery making is going to even dent regarding cobalt and nickel.

Should I also mention the fact the the 4 names that are credited for making this article reads like a soviet era propaganda poster? Or how about the fact that the school where these people attend has been attracting a lot of attention recently...

http://www.cbs46.com/story/38745893...-tech-administrators-out-after-internal-audit

 

[tangoseal]

I laugh when people say were overpopulated and we have uncontrolled growth.

 

[naib]

butbutbut every other day there is battery breakthroughs

 

[Nafensoriel]

Something smells like BS...

In no way shape or form is cobalt or nickel rare, the stuff is literally a by-product of iron and copper mining. The headline and everything they say will be completely taken out of context unless you understand the "reserves" he is referring to are the rich assholes who have the money and space to sit on 10k metric tons of metals.

But wait, there's more... the quip about how electric vehicles will use up all the "reserves" people have because of batteries... well lets answer this BS article with another source of potential BS from wikipedia:

"Nickel is one of four elements (the others are iron, cobalt, and gadolinium)[7] that are ferromagnetic at approximately room temperature. Alnico permanent magnets based partly on nickel are of intermediate strength between iron-based permanent magnets and rare-earth magnets. The metal is valuable in modern times chiefly in alloys; about 68% of world production is used in stainless steel. A further 10% is used for nickel-based and copper-based alloys, 7% for alloy steels, 3% in foundries, 9% in plating and 4% in other applications, including the fast-growing battery sector.[8] As a compound, nickel has a number of niche chemical manufacturing uses, such as a catalyst for hydrogenation, cathodes for batteries, pigments and metal surface treatments.[9] Nickel is an essential nutrient for some microorganisms and plants that have enzymes with nickel as an active site."

WHAAAT!? You mean the majority of all nickel production is used to make STEEL and battery manufacturing is part of the "other" 4%. Unless all these new electric cars are being made out of stainless steel, I don't see how battery making is going to even dent regarding cobalt and nickel.

Should I also mention the fact the the 4 names that are credited for making this article reads like a soviet era propaganda poster? Or how about the fact that the school where these people attend has been attracting a lot of attention recently...

http://www.cbs46.com/story/38745893...-tech-administrators-out-after-internal-audit

To be fair most of the time when they make claims about EVs using up the world supply its the news outlets, not the researchers who are at fault. In almost every single case the actual statement is manufacturing supply not physical supply. If you approach the question from "Can we meet production demand of lithium batteries if EV sales surge 25% per year for the next 5 years.." The answer leans more to "No" because battery production is not keeping up with the vehicles themselves.

Rarely are actual physical resources actually in short supply. Hell, even gold isn't remotely rare if you consider the total amount in earths crust compared to what we have already mined. North Carolina alone has enough gold to quintuple the total mined gold from all human history... though we just can't get to it economically with current technology.

 

[DeathFromBelow]

Something smells like BS...

In no way shape or form is cobalt or nickel rare, the stuff is literally a by-product of iron and copper mining.
...

Should I also mention the fact the the 4 names that are credited for making this article reads like a soviet era propaganda poster? Or how about the fact that the school where these people attend has been attracting a lot of attention recently...

http://www.cbs46.com/story/38745893...-tech-administrators-out-after-internal-audit

Bingo.

Silicon-anode technology is advancing. Tesla already uses small amounts of silicon in anodes made of graphite for lithium-ion cells in its electric vehicles, and BMW announced plans to incorporate silicon-dominant anodes in its future electric vehicle batteries. Other companies, too, are developing silicon-rich anode materials. These include the Californian firms Enevate in Irvine, Enovix in Fremont and Sila Nanotechnologies in Alameda (G.Y. is a board member, shareholder and chief technology officer of Sila Nanotechnologies).

And by board member they meant to say that 'G.Y.' (Gleb Yushin) co-founded the company. They don't bother to mention that he was the co-founder in the paper and they shorten his name, but it's in Nature's 'Competing Financial Interests' section at the bottom.

 

[haste.]

" violating environmental and safety regulations "

Time to start doing our manufacturing n crap out on Alpha Centauri or somethin.

Edit: Make asteroids great again.

Hold up. you dont want a clean and sustainable environment for children to grow up in so that industrial corporations can maximize profit while slowly killing you with increased pollution? there are alternatives to the pure garbage they are feeding you verbally and, well in other ways...

 

[The Mad Atheist]

I laugh when people say were overpopulated and we have uncontrolled growth.

Why, don't you not know population numbers throughout history, or the minimum - maximum projected growth numbers?

 

[ep0x73]

So, dig up more mountains to find traces of these minerals? Where are the green liberals at to bitch and complain about this?
Drilling for oil and gas is bad but tearing off a mountain top is alright.

 

[tangoseal]

Why, don't you not know population numbers throughout history, or the minimum - maximum projected growth numbers?

I am a Biologist with a great deal of understanding ecological systems.

You could fit the entire human population, every last one of us humans, in Los Angeles County with room to spare.

 

[Rob94hawk]

Time to start space mining instead of tearing apart the planet for every little resource we need. Yeah of course initially it'll cost more. But it's highly logical.

I wonder if it's possible to do flybys of the sun an score some Helium.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

I am a Biologist with a great deal of understanding ecological systems.

You could fit the entire human population, every last one of us humans, in Los Angeles County with room to spare.

Doesn't mean Jack if you can fit everyone into a area, if the ecosystem can't support them, then it will fail. There will be a point where the Earth will not support our numbers with the usable resources we are pulling from the ground, the pollution we are dumping into the environment, and the decline of keystone species that each other rely upon.

 

[tangoseal]

Doesn't mean Jack if you can fit everyone into a area, if the ecosystem can't support them, then it will fail. There will be a point where the Earth will not support our numbers with the usable resources we are pulling from the ground, the pollution we are dumping into the environment, and the decline of keystone species that each other rely upon.

Ok go study the actual numbers and science and stop reading internet opinion pieces. We live in an age where internet fanaticism outpaces the ability of scientist to actually dispel social media emotional truths.

 

[katanaD]

I am a Biologist with a great deal of understanding ecological systems.

You could fit the entire human population, every last one of us humans, in Los Angeles County with room to spare.

what i am waiting for is water desalination.. in MASS, and farming to go vertical and indoors to truly maximize production.

With a little understanding and study, it is easy to see how the planet can sustain.. a vastly bigger population

 

[lcpiper]

what i am waiting for is water desalination.. in MASS, and farming to go vertical and indoors to truly maximize production.

With a little understanding and study, it is easy to see how the planet can sustain.. a vastly bigger population

I agree, shit anything is possible right?

I mean bottled water from a convenience store costs more per gallon than gasoline lol

Humans can be convinced to do anything, anything at all, no matter how stupid or self-defeating.

 

[Jagger100]

Considering China cornered the market on production and put the rest of the world's mines out of business, I call bullshit. They also basically have economic hegemony over Africa's resources. Pretty much unopposed since they got their lackies in Washington to make it illegal for US entities to bribe anywhere in the world especially Africa where bribes are more common than malaria. China bribed it's way accross the continent and locked down any potentially competing resources.

 

[Burticus]

At some point we'll work out asteroid mining to solve this problem....

Sign me up, sounds like fun.