Musk "Manganese" moved carefully

Written by 丨Li Shuo

Edit 丨 wheat

American editor 丨CBEA unique shine

"I think manganese has potential." Recently, Tesla CEO Musk said that Tesla has been exploring the use of more manganese materials in batteries.

As the pioneer of global electric vehicles, Musk's words and deeds will arouse great concern in the market, and may also become a new direction for the development of automotive batteries. In 2020, Tesla had said it would use lithium iron phosphate in electric vehicles, and in the following years, Tesla began to use lithium iron phosphate batteries in the Model 3 and Model Y models.

Now, Tesla sees the potential of manganese materials in cathode materials. So, will the battery material change again because of the use of manganese?

However, Musk did not disclose more specific information and directions about the application of manganese in the field of batteries. However, based on the past domestic and foreign applications of manganese in batteries, it is also possible to spy what Musk said about the "potential of manganese"?

Potential one: lithium manganese iron phosphate - has been determined to be the upgrade direction of lithium iron phosphate

Compared with one of the existing mainstream battery materials, lithium iron phosphate (LMFP) has a higher voltage, which can reach 4.1V (the theoretical discharge platform of lithium iron phosphate is 3.4V), with good low temperature performance and energy density of about 15% higher than lithium iron phosphate. In addition, the LMFP process is not much different from the existing lithium iron phosphate production system, mainly through the coating, doping, nano and other modification technologies to solve the problem of low conductivity.

Lithium ferromanganese phosphate is considered by many experts in the industry to be one of the upgrading directions of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have the advantages of both lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganese phosphate.

In addition, lithium manganese iron phosphate can also be used in combination with ternary materials, which can effectively integrate the characteristics of high safety, high energy density and low temperature performance of the two.

It is worth noting that in recent years, domestic companies may begin to accelerate the mass production of LMFP. In the past, LMFP was limited by its low conductivity and magnification performance and failed to be popularized, and with the advancement of modified technologies such as carbon coating, nanoization, and lithium supplementation technology, the industrialization process of LMFP began to accelerate. Since last year, domestic cathode material manufacturers Such as German Nano and Dangsheng Technology have announced their latest layout in terms of lithium manganese iron phosphate, and The latest 100,000 tons of new phosphate cathode material project announced by German Nano may be LMFP.

On the battery side, it is reported that leading enterprises in the battery industry, including Ningde Times, BYD, and Guoxuan Hi-Tech, have related technology patent layouts.

According to industry analysts, it is expected that by 2023, LMFP can be stable mass production and gradually applied to electric vehicles.

Potential two: cobalt-free batteries - lithium nickel-manganese oxide batteries

According to reports, at Tesla's "Battery Day" in 2020, Musk also said that it is relatively simple to make cathode materials with two-thirds of nickel and one-third of manganese, which will allow us to generate more than 50% more battery capacity in the case of the same amount of nickel.

Subject to the scarcity of cobalt resources and the high price, low cobalt, less cobalt, and even no cobalt has always been an important research and development direction for the ternary battery industry. Tesla also revealed at the beginning of 2020 that it will develop cobalt-free batteries (non-lithium iron phosphate batteries), but in the past two or three years, it has not disclosed relevant news to the outside world.

In May of the same year, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, mentioned at the performance briefing that "the company has its own 'cobalt-free' battery technology reserves, and research and development is progressing smoothly, and it is trying to find ways to do a good job in the supply chain, because it is a new and subversive product." ”

In addition, CATL also said that in terms of cooperation with Tesla, the company has corresponding products in terms of lithium iron phosphate and ternary, and the supply is not limited to lithium iron phosphate or ternary, and the specific supply products depend on market demand.

In January 2021, Tesla battery supplier Panasonic Battery revealed that in terms of new battery technologies, Panasonic is developing cobalt-free batteries and plans to achieve cobalt-free batteries in the next 2-3 years.

It is worth mentioning that the domestic hive energy has mass-produced cobalt-free batteries last year, and installed them in August of the same year. It is understood that the honeycomb energy cobalt-free battery no longer uses metal cobalt, only nickel manganese two main elements, that is, nickel manganese lithium battery, according to hive energy revealed, its use of cation doping technology, single crystal technology and nano network coating technology and other three key technologies, in the nickel 7 series and 8 series in the middle of the cobalt-free material, that is, the use of high nickel system to do "cobalt-free materials".

According to Hive Energy, the energy density of its cobalt-free batteries is currently 40% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, and its safety, cost and cycle life are significantly better than that of ternary batteries.

Tesla's "manganese has a lot of potential", is not a cobalt-free battery, it is worth looking forward to.

Potential three: lithium-rich manganese-based batteries?

Lithium-rich manganese-based groups have a good high specific capacity and have always been an ideal lithium battery material, but this material has been in an "ideal state" for many years.

Because of its low lithium-rich manganese-based charge and discharge efficiency, poor magnification performance, and poor cycle stability, there will be continuous voltage decline during the charge and discharge process, and the 4.8V high-pressure electrolyte is also a great challenge. This somewhat reduces the superiority of its high specific capacity.

Many researchers at home and abroad have been investing heavily in this area for many years, but the difficulty is too high, and many battery companies seem to have given up by default.

But the low price of manganese, and its high specific capacity, has always been tempting for industry. Whether Tesla can bring "surprises" needs to be walked to see.

Musk also pointed out that for a long time to come, Tesla will focus on nickel-material batteries for long-life cars, and lithium iron phosphate batteries for short-range cars.

As for "manganese has great potential", Musk did not give a time point.

Of course, as the "king of bargaining" in the market, Musk has repeatedly released "harsh words" hoping to suppress the price of key metals for lithium batteries. Whether the "shouting" was deliberately done because of the recent soaring prices of ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries is not known.