Blog

Lithium Battery

Introduction

With the increasing attention to energy issues worldwide, new energy battery technologies have gradually become the top priority of scientific research and industrial development in various countries under the background of energy transition and sustainable development. From traditional lithium-ion batteries to more forward-looking hydrogen fuel cells, liquid flow batteries, etc., different types of batteries have shown a wide range of application prospects in the fields of power storage and electric vehicles. However, there are also many challenges and limitations, such as energy density, cycle life, and cost. To better promote the development of new energy sources, this series will comprehensively evaluate the advantages, drawbacks, and application scenarios of each type of mainstream new battery technology, provide valuable references and guidance for researchers, industrial practitioners, promote continuous innovation in this field, and contribute to the sustainable development of global energy.

Main article

Lithium-ion battery is a kind of rechargeable battery with high energy density, low self-discharge rate and light weight, which consists of positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte and diaphragm, etc., of which the positive electrode and negative electrode are made of lithium compounds. In the field of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are widely used in pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, for example, Tesla's Model S, Model X, Model 3 and other models use lithium-ion batteries as the power source, lithium-ion batteries have a high energy density and a long lifespan, and they can provide sufficient range for pure electric vehicles, and they can also provide efficient power support for plug-in hybrid vehicles can also provide efficient power support. Lithium-ion batteries have also begun to enter the field of electric forklifts in the past two years, for example: BYD has launched its own lithium-ion electric forklift vehicles; other electric forklift manufacturers such as Linde are also in the process of advancing ^[1].

Lithium batteries are currently divided into lithium manganese batteries, lithium ternary batteries and lithium iron batteries. Lithium manganese batteries are relatively inexpensive and have good safety performance; they have obvious advantages in low-temperature environments, and can have more than 90% efficiency when discharged at minus 20°C. However, lithium manganese batteries with high temperatures are not suitable for electric forklift trucks. However, lithium manganese batteries have poor high temperature performance, low cycle life, low comparable capacity, and poor multiplier discharge, which makes them unsuitable as starter batteries. The material of ternary battery is expensive, with poor safety performance. At present, the Chinese battery industry is not mature in mastering this material, but it has high capacity, long cycle life and good multiplier discharge performance. LiFePO4 battery has many cycles (about 2500 times), good high temperature performance and multiplicative discharge capability; however, its low temperature performance is poor, and its superior performance can be shown in the field of electric vehicles.

From Table 2-2, it can be seen that lead-acid batteries relative to lithium-ion batteries, the disadvantage is that specific energy of battery is low, the cycle life is shorter, and at the same time in the production and use of the process there is the possibility of causing heavy metal lead pollution, but it has certain advantages in production costs, maintainability, recycling efficiency and safety performance.

Table 2-2 Lead-acid battery and lithium battery main performance parameters comparison table

References：

[1]陈碧雯.新能源汽车动力电池应用现状及发展探讨[J].时代汽车,2023,(21):95-97.