Manganese in Batteries

 


Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are used in devices like electric vehicles, energy storage systems, laptops and smartphones. Nickel and cobalt are used in the cathodes of these batteries and supplies are limited.

The Deportment of Energy’s Berkeley Lab offers the potential for a low cost solution. On September 19, a new study was published in the journal Nature Technology. 

Manganese is the 5th most abundant material on earth. It is found to be useful in cathode materials. These materials are called disordered rock salts or DRX. 

In order to perform, DRX has to be ground down to nanoscale. This is an energy intensive process. A  new study found that manganese based cathodes can work well with particles that are 1,000 times larger than expected! 

Han-Ming Hau researches battery technology at Berkeley Lab and is a Ph.D student. He reports, “There are many ways to generate power with renewable energy, but the importance lies in how you store it. By applying our new approach, we can use a material that is both earth-abundant and low cost, and that takes less energy and time to produce than some commercialized Li-ion battery cathode materials. And it can store as much energy and work just as well.”

The scientists used a technique that removes lithium ions from the cathode materials. The process takes two days, as compared to the three weeks of treatment with non-manganese based materials. 

The team used electron microscopes to observe atomic scale reactions of the manganese based material. They found the manganese formed a nanoscale semi-ordered structure. It enhanced the battery performance and allowed for both dense storage and the delivery of energy.

Hau summarized, “We now have a better understanding of the unique nanostructure of the material and a synthesis process to cause this ‘phase change’ in the material that improves it's electrochemical performance. It’s an important step that pushes this material closer to battery applications in the real world.”

Better batteries are coming! 

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