Introduction to the production process and development trends of lithium battery cathode materials. The performance of lithium battery cathode materials directly affects the performance of lithium-ion batteries, and its cost also directly determines the cost of the battery. There are many industrial production processes for cathode materials, the synthesis route is relatively complex, and the control of temperature, environment, and impurity content is also relatively strict. In this article, the editor will introduce the production process and development trends of lithium battery cathode materials.

　　Lithium battery requirements for cathode materials:

　　It has high specific energy, high specific power, less self-discharge, low price, long service life and good safety.

　　Lithium battery cathode material production process:

　　Calcination technology uses a new microwave drying technology to dry lithium battery cathode materials, which solves the problems of conventional lithium battery cathode material drying technology that takes a long time, slows capital turnover, uneven drying, and insufficient drying depth. The specific features are:

　　1. Using microwave drying equipment for lithium battery cathode materials, it is fast and deep drying can be completed in a few minutes, and the final moisture content can reach more than one thousandth;

　　2. Uniform drying and good drying quality of the product;

　　3. Lithium battery cathode materials are highly efficient, energy-saving, safe and environmentally friendly;

　　4. It has no thermal inertia and the instant heating is easy to control. Microwave sintering lithium battery cathode materials have the characteristics of fast heating speed, high energy utilization, high heating efficiency, safety, hygiene and pollution-free. It can improve the uniformity and yield of the product, and improve the microstructure and performance of the sintered material.

　　General preparation methods of lithium battery cathode materials:

　　1. Solid phase method

　　Generally, lithium salts such as lithium carbonate and cobalt compounds or nickel compounds are ground and mixed, and then the sintering reaction is carried out. The advantage of this method is that the process flow is simple and the raw materials are easily available. It is a method that has been widely researched, developed and produced in the early stages of the development of lithium batteries, and foreign technology is relatively mature. The disadvantages are that the produced cathode material has limited capacitance, poor mixing uniformity of the raw materials, and poor performance of the prepared materials. The stability is not good and the quality consistency between batches is poor.

　　2. Complex method

　　The complex method uses an organic complex to first prepare a complex precursor containing lithium ions and cobalt or vanadium ions, and then sinters the preparation. The advantages of this method are molecular-scale mixing, good material uniformity and performance stability, and the cathode material has a higher capacitance than the solid-phase method. It has been tested abroad as an industrial method for lithium batteries, but the technology is not yet mature, and there are currently few reports in China. .

　　3. Sol-gel method

　　The method of preparing ultrafine particles developed in the 1970s is used to prepare cathode materials. This method has the advantages of the complex method, and the capacitance of the prepared electrode materials is greatly improved. It is a technology that is developing rapidly at home and abroad. a way. The disadvantage is that the cost is higher and the technology is still in the development stage.

　　4. Ion exchange method

　　LiMnO2 prepared by the ion exchange method has achieved a high reversible discharge capacity of 270mA·h/g. This method has become a new hot spot in research. It has the characteristics of stable electrode performance and high capacitance. However, the process involves energy-consuming and time-consuming steps such as solution recrystallization and evaporation, and there is still a long way to go before practical application.

　　Development trends of lithium battery cathode materials:

　　As an important part of lithium batteries, my country's power lithium battery cathode material industry has developed rapidly. With the development of the new energy automobile industry and the energy storage industry, it is expected that the lithium battery cathode material industry will become the main driving force for the growth of the cathode material industry in the future in terms of subdivided lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, and will usher in more opportunities. and challenges.

　　Lithium batteries will maintain stable and sustained development in the next three years, and the total demand for lithium batteries is expected to reach 130Gwh in 2019. As the application fields of lithium batteries continue to expand, lithium battery cathode materials continue to develop and expand.

　　The explosive growth of new energy vehicles has brought about the sustained and rapid development of the overall lithium battery industry. It is expected that global lithium battery cathode materials will exceed 300,000 tons in 2019. Among them, ternary materials will develop rapidly, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 30%. In the future, NCM and NCA will become the mainstream automotive cathode materials. It is expected that the use of ternary materials will account for about 80% of automotive materials in 2019.

　　As the future development direction of batteries, lithium batteries have promising market prospects for cathode materials. At the same time, the promotion of 3G mobile phones and the large-scale commercialization of new energy vehicles will bring new opportunities for lithium battery cathode materials. Lithium battery cathode materials have a broad market and the prospects are very optimistic.

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