They made lithium batteries very cheap. Shenzhen lithium battery project won the National Technological Invention Award

　　Last weekend, at the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, summarized the achievements of new energy vehicle development and mentioned that "the price of power battery systems has dropped to less than 2 yuan/watt-hour, and the production capacity has reached 200G watt-hours, basically meeting the needs of industrialization and the market." Let's follow the power management editor to learn about the relevant content.

　　How did the price of power batteries become so cheap?

　　Recently, the "Graphite and Graphene Materials for High-Performance Lithium-ion Batteries" project from Shenzhen won the second prize of the National Technological Invention Award. This is the scientific research result completed by the team of Professor Kang Feiyu of the Shenzhen Graduate School of Tsinghua University and the team of Professor Yang Quanhong of Tianjin University over a period of more than 20 years. The reporter of Guangzhou Daily Omnimedia learned in the interview that it was the unremitting efforts of these scientific researchers that made power batteries cheaper and brought new energy vehicles into the lives of the public.

　　What is the use of this technology? How amazing is it? Why was it completed in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong? Recently, Professor Li Baohua of the Graduate School of Tsinghua University Shenzhen, one of the main implementers of the project, accepted an exclusive interview with our reporter and unveiled the mystery of this technology to readers.

Li Baohua introduces the high-end scientific research equipment in the laboratory to reporters

　　How good is the technology?

　　Lithium battery industry becomes a three-way competition among China, Japan and South Korea

　　New energy vehicles are mainly composed of battery drive systems, motor systems, electronic control systems and assembly. The motor, electronic control and assembly are basically the same as those of traditional vehicles. The reason for the price difference is the battery drive system. From the cost structure of new energy vehicles, the battery drive system accounts for 30% to 45% of the cost of new energy vehicles, and the power lithium battery accounts for about 75% to 85% of the cost of the battery drive system.

　　The key to solving the high price of new energy vehicles is to reduce the primary purchase cost of power lithium batteries . The "Graphite and Graphene Materials for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries" project belongs to the graphite and carbon product manufacturing technology among inorganic non-metallic materials, which optimizes the charge and discharge rate, cycle and high and low temperature performance of lithium-ion power batteries, greatly improves the deep processing technology and utilization level of China's natural graphite resources, and enhances the international competitiveness of China's lithium-ion battery industry.

　　How great is this technology? Li Baohua explained to reporters the ins and outs of the development of this project. It turns out that Japan was the first to start the lithium-ion battery manufacturing industry. It used artificial carbon graphite materials to manufacture lithium-ion battery negative electrode materials, which greatly promoted the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries. Why use artificial graphite materials? Because Japan lacks resources and has no natural graphite mineral reserves. Artificial graphite materials mainly come from the petrochemical and steel industries. At that time, the technology of artificial graphite negative electrode materials was in the hands of the Japanese. Later, South Korea also learned Japan's technology, so the early lithium-ion battery market has always been led by Japan and South Korea. However, the preparation process of artificial graphite is energy-intensive and costly, which restricts its price and application scale.

　　The situation in my country is different from that in Japan and South Korea. my country has abundant natural graphite resources. If natural graphite can replace artificial graphite in the production of lithium-ion batteries, it can save energy and reduce costs on the one hand, and also achieve a curve overtaking in international competition on the other hand. The significance of this is self-evident. Therefore, my country has started to carry out research on natural graphite since the last century. Professor Kang Feiyu's team is the earliest scientific research team in China engaged in the deep processing and application of natural graphite.

　　The project team has been working on the project for more than 20 years, from being the first in China to apply for a patent for the invention of a natural graphite negative electrode, breaking through key technologies, to realizing the large-scale application of natural graphite and graphene. With the help of resource and technological advantages, they have finally made lithium-ion batteries "high quality and low price", forming a "China-Japan-South Korea" three-legged pattern in the lithium-ion battery industry.

　　Li Baohua used a set of figures to tell reporters that before 2000, the price of one ton of lithium-ion battery negative electrode materials made of artificial graphite was 300,000 to 400,000 yuan; after 2000, it gradually dropped to the current 30,000 to 100,000 yuan. This also forced Japanese and Korean battery companies to significantly reduce the price of lithium-ion batteries.

　　Today, the annual output value of the domestic and international lithium-ion battery negative electrode material market is nearly 10 billion yuan, of which nearly 40% is made from deep processing of natural graphite.

Professor Kang Feiyu and some members of the research team received the second prize of the National Technological Invention Award

　　What are the characteristics?

　　35 authorized invention patents

　　Realize industrial application

　　Li Baohua introduced that the project has been authorized with 35 invention patents. For example, the invention of binary co-intercalation flake graphite modification and micro-expansion technology has achieved low-cost preparation of graphite; the development of commercial micro-expansion modified graphite negative electrode materials with fast charging and discharging, wide operating temperature range and long cycle life has greatly shortened the charging and discharging time of lithium-ion batteries; the invention of a method for preparing graphene at low temperature and negative pressure has achieved low-cost and large-scale preparation of high-quality graphene; the application technology of graphene conductive agent based on the "point-surface" model has been proposed, etc.

　　Li Baohua proudly said: "This project has developed key materials and industrial integration technologies with independent intellectual property rights, which has greatly improved the rapid charging and discharging, cycling, high and low temperature performance of batteries. It has changed the industrial structure and broken the situation where my country's high-end graphite industry is scarce and high value-added processing technology has long been monopolized by foreign countries. It is of great significance to the development of new energy and electric vehicle industries."

　　It is understood that the project results have been industrialized and applied in many cooperative units such as Shenzhen Xiangfenghua. The relevant products and technologies are mainly used in domestic lithium battery leading enterprises such as BYD, and have achieved good economic and social benefits.

　　Why Shenzhen?

　　Collaborating with Nobel Prize winners to solve difficult problems

　　Why did such a significant technology project choose to be industrialized in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong, and eventually bring back a national award for Shenzhen, Guangdong?

　　Li Baohua told reporters that the project team initially conducted technical research in the mainland because of the concentration of universities and scientific research talents in the mainland. However, "technical application has a running-in process. We need to closely integrate with the industry and know what the enterprises need so that the technology can be truly used and improved step by step. The Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong is the largest lithium-ion battery production base in my country, so we chose to come to Guangdong."

　　Since 2002, the project team has started to work with manufacturers in the south. For example, Li Baohua worked in a lithium-ion battery company for nearly three years and gradually found out the real needs of the company. Li Baohua said, "Lithium-ion battery manufacturers used Japanese and Korean technologies, which were accustomed to them. They were initially resistant to our domestic technologies. But as our cooperation deepened and we got to know each other better, our technologies became more and more mature. Now we have finally established a complete industrial chain."

　　In Shenzhen, the municipal government focuses on supporting the development of new materials, new energy and electric vehicle industries, especially in recent years, vigorously supporting the scientific and technological innovation and industrial development of graphene materials, providing a good innovation environment and huge industrial development space for the research and development and application of this project. Shenzhen has listed important fields such as graphene as the direction of the municipal government's future key support. In 2017, the "Shenzhen Geim Graphene Research Center" (SGC) was unveiled in Shenzhen, which was invested and built by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and managed by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee, with Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School as supporting units. Under the leadership of Professor Andre Geim, the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics and one of the discoverers of graphene, the research center has built an internationally renowned scientific research experimental platform, focusing on overcoming the key problems encountered in the basic frontier research and high-end product industrialization of two-dimensional materials represented by graphene, and finally became a multifunctional service platform integrating research and development, standardization, industrialization testing, etc.

　　As for the future, Li Baohua said that with the country's strong support for the development of the electric vehicle industry, the demand for high-end lithium-ion power batteries is increasing, so high-performance and high-value-added key negative electrodes and conductive agents and other materials have broad future market prospects.

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