Energy density breakthrough, will NCA ternary battery enter the era of high energy density?

　　Recently, my country has made a major breakthrough in the development of high-nickel cathode materials and power battery monomers. Tianjin Lishen Battery Co., Ltd. has developed a NCA ternary high-energy-density power lithium battery with an energy density of more than 300wh/kg, which has attracted the attention of the industry. According to the "Medium- and Long-Term Development Plan for the Automobile Industry" of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, it is required that the energy density of power battery monomers reach 300Wh/kg in 2020, which has become one of the goals of the industry's efforts. The success of Tianjin Lishen's high-energy-density battery research and development has shocked the entire industry and brought China's NCA ternary LR41 battery into the era of high energy density 3.0.

　　According to Battery China, Tianjin Lishen has developed high-nickel cathode materials for lithium-ion power LR41 battery with high specific energy, long cycle life and good safety performance based on the preliminary research of nickel cobalt aluminum lithium oxide (NCA) cathode materials; through nano-preparation, nano-dispersion, coating and pre-embedded lithium and other technologies, it has developed silicon-carbon anode materials with high capacity, high first efficiency, good cycle stability and rate performance.

　　It is reported that Tianjin Lishen has developed a battery cell based on this system with a specific energy of 302wh/Kg, a volume energy density of more than 642Wh/L, 710 1C charge and discharge cycles at 25°C (100% DOD), and a capacity retention rate of 80%; at the same time, by optimizing the electrolyte formula, the cycle performance has been significantly improved, and the current capacity retention rate is as high as 96% after 285 cycles (100% DOD). This work has laid the foundation for the development of lithium-ion battery cells with a specific energy of 300Wh/kg and a cycle life of 1,500 times.

　　In recent years, the requirement for high energy density has prompted domestic battery companies to continuously deploy high-nickel ternary materials. According to Battery China Network, lithium iron phosphate materials are limited by their own performance. With current technology, it is difficult to meet the energy density requirements of relevant national plans in 2020. It is also difficult to expect ternary materials such as NCM111 and NCM523 to reach the target of 300wh/kg single-cell energy density. The current mainstream NCM523 can reach 160-200wh/kg, while NCM622 and NCM811 can reach 230wh/kg and 280wh/kg respectively. Therefore, in order to achieve high requirements for power battery energy density and extend the driving range, it is necessary to vigorously develop high-nickel ternary materials.

　　High-nickel ternary materials mainly refer to ternary materials with high nickel content. Currently, the common ones are NCM622, NCM811 and NCA. In high-nickel ternary materials, the main function of Ni is to provide capacity. The higher the content, the greater the energy density of the battery; while Co contributes part of the capacity and can stabilize the structure; Mn/Al is mainly used to stabilize the structure. The three work together to jointly play the advantages of high energy density and low cost of ternary materials.

　　Under the multiple stimulations of national policy requirements, increased driving range of new energy vehicles and rising cobalt prices, high-nickel system NCM811 and NCA materials have become a hot spot for domestic power battery companies to actively deploy. From the market situation, most

　　companies have chosen the NCM811 route rather than the NCA route.

　　It is reported that the annual production capacity of Dangsheng Technology's NCM811 products is currently 4,000 tons, and the third phase of the project plans to produce 18,000 tons/year of high-nickel multi-materials, which will be completed and put into production from 2018 to 2020; Guoxuan High-tech said that it has developed a ternary 811 material soft-pack battery cell with an energy density of 302wh/kg; Shanshan Energy announced at the end of 2017 that the Ningxiang base NCM811 production line with a monthly output of 100 tons was successfully put into production; Yiwei Lithium Energy said that it has begun to promote non-automotive NCM811 since 2012; Tianjin Bamo's annual production line of 5,000 tons of high-nickel materials was put into production in 2017, and it has now achieved batch supply of NCM811 to major international customers. According to Battery China, high-nickel 811 projects such as Ningbo Jinhe, Xiamen Tungsten Industry, and Tianli Lithium Energy are also progressing steadily.

　　As for ternary NCA materials, due to the late start in China, the technical level is far behind that of foreign companies. The current production capacity of NCA is mainly concentrated in Japan and South Korea. The main suppliers of NCA are Japan's Sumitomo Metal, Japan Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. and Toda Chemical, and South Korea's Ecopro and GSEM also sell a small amount of products. Among them, Toda Chemical mainly supplies Japan's AESC and South Korea's LGC, Sumitomo Metal mainly supplies Panasonic and PEVE, and South Korea's Ecopro's corresponding customers are SDI. Data show that in 2017, the total installed capacity of lithium-ion LR41 battery in China's electric vehicle market was 33.55GWh, of which lithium iron phosphate LR41 battery installed 16.33GWh, NCM ternary LR41 battery installed 15GWh, and NCA ternary LR41 battery installed only 286.5MWh.

　　The domestic NCA technical route has not developed. In addition to the late start, it is also closely related to the high production technology barriers of ternary NCA materials. Replacing manganese with Al in NCA materials is actually to modify lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide through ion doping and surface coating. Ion doping can enhance the stability of the material and improve the cycle performance of the material. However, during the production process, since Al is an amphoteric metal, it is not easy to precipitate. NCA LR41 battery require a pure oxygen environment, have high processing costs, and must be kept below 10% humidity throughout the battery production process, all of which pose great challenges to domestic companies.

　　Therefore, this major breakthrough by Tianjin Lishen in high-nickel NCA cathode materials has given a shot in the arm to China's battery companies. According to Battery China, domestic companies such as BYD have NCA technology that is ready for mass production. Currently, it has a production capacity of 3,000 tons of high-nickel cathode materials in Shenzhen, which has been sold to customers such as Panasonic. A new 15,000-ton high-nickel cathode material production line will be built in Changzhou, Jiangsu. In addition, Shanghai Delongneng, Shanshan Energy, and Rongbai Lithium Battery have also announced that they have the ability to mass-produce NCA materials.

　　Battery China believes that although NCA materials have high technical barriers, domestic companies still face many challenges to compete with Japanese and Korean companies. However, it is believed that in China, the world's largest power battery market, with the continuous catch-up and technological accumulation of domestic companies, the next few years will usher in an explosion of high-nickel battery production, and will also produce world-leading local NCA battery giants.

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