New high-energy, low-cost aluminum-based battery receives special funding from Guangdong Province

The major scientific and technological project of "New Energy Vehicles" funded by the Guangdong Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Strategic Special Fund of 2019 of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology has been established, and the project "Research and Development of New High-Energy and Low-Cost Aluminum-Based Batteries" jointly submitted by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tianjin Co., Ltd. has been approved.

It is understood that the new aluminum-based battery based on aluminum foil negative electrode developed by Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences & Tianjin Co., Ltd. has the advantages of high energy density and low cost, and has independent intellectual property rights. The relevant battery technology has initially completed the core technology intellectual property layout. The battery uses aluminum foil as both the negative electrode material and the negative electrode current collector. This integrated design replaces the graphite negative electrode and copper foil current collector in traditional batteries, which is conducive to increasing the proportion of active materials in the battery. The aluminum foil has a large specific capacity, so it can greatly improve the energy density of the battery (compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries based on the same positive electrode material).

In addition, since the traditional graphite negative electrode and the more expensive copper foil current collector are eliminated, the battery production process is simplified, and the raw material cost and production cost can be significantly reduced (an overall reduction of more than 30%), the new aluminum-based battery has achieved high energy density, long cycle life, low cost, all-weather and other comprehensive performance, which opens up new ideas for the research and development of high-efficiency and low-cost energy storage devices and has very important economic and social value.

Improving energy density has always been regarded as an important direction indicator for the development of lithium-ion batteries. Although the use of silicon-carbon materials as negative electrodes can improve the energy density of battery cells, the expansion coefficient of silicon-carbon materials is too high and the life span is relatively short, so it is not easy to achieve in a short period of time. Some studies also believe that the diaphragm can be made thinner, but the safety of the battery cannot be guaranteed, and the cost of the battery will become higher. Other studies believe that the use of porous copper foil materials can reduce the internal resistance of the battery and will improve the energy density to a certain extent. However, this method will inevitably increase the cost of copper foil preparation, which may not be worth the cost.

It seems that reducing the use of graphite and copper foil and directly using aluminum foil may avoid the above problems. However, the project is still in the stage of project approval and is in the process of testing and application.