China’s Refining Giant Jumps Into the Battery Business
China’s biggest refiner, Sinopec, has set up a venture with South Korea’s LG Chem to develop sodium-ion batteries for the storage industry and for “low-speed” electric vehicles, the company said. This is the first foray of Sinopec in the battery industry.
LG Chem said, as quoted by Korean media, that sodium-ion batteries have a number of advantages over alternatives, such as abundant raw materials, lower production costs, and slower degradation rates at low temperatures compared with lithium-ion batteries.
“Sinopec's corporate vision is to become a world-leading clean energy and premium chemical company. This collaboration in developing sodium-ion battery materials will further strengthen the technology and market competitiveness of both companies, and help promote energy transition and sustainable development,” the chairman of the Chinese major said at the presentation of the news.
Sinopec is the world’s largest oil refiner in terms of capacity, at around 6 million barrels daily. It is also one of the top crude oil and gas producers in China. Even so, the company has predicted that peak oil demand for China is just a couple of years away. The peak will occur at a daily demand level of some 16 million barrels or a total of 800 million metric tons, the Chinese state oil major said in December last year.
Meanwhile, Sinopec reported a 32% drop in net profits for the third quarter of the year, attributing the result to weaker oil prices and sluggish demand growth.
China is the largest market for electric vehicles in the world, and sodium-ion batteries for EVs are seen as a growth market within that wider one. According to market research cited by Sinopec, demand for sodium-ion batteries is set to grow from 10 GWh this year to 292 GWh in 2034. As much as 90% of global production of these batteries by 2030 will be in China, the refining major also said.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
From protection to catalysis: Scientists uncover hidden chemistry behind record-breaking sodium-chlorine batteries
Science China Press
image:
(a) Conventional rechargeable Na metal battery with a potential-dependence redox reaction for solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation on Na metal anode through FSI− anion decomposition. (b) Rechargeable Na-Cl2 battery with a spontaneous chemical reaction between the FSI− anion and AlCl3 in the chloroaluminate electrolyte to form AlF3 at the carbon cathode, which further facilitates the oxidation of NaCl as an efficient Lewis-acidic catalyst.
view more
Credit: ©Science China Press
Rechargeable sodium-chlorine (Na-Cl2) batteries have emerged as a promising option for next-generation energy storage due to their high energy density and low cost. A key component of this battery system is the chloroaluminate electrolyte, typically composed of aluminum chloride (AlCl3) and thionyl chloride (SOCl2) mixed with fluorinated additives such as sodium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (NaFSI). These additives were long believed to stabilize the Na metal anode by forming a F-rich protective layer, an idea borrowed from their behavior in conventional Li and Na metal batteries.
However, this assumption remains unverified. The strong Lewis acidity of AlCl3 and the high reactivity of SOCl2 could instead cause parasitic reactions with FSI− anions in unexpected ways, leading to a different underlying mechanism from the conventional alkali metal batteries.
A research team led by Prof. Hao Sun from Shanghai Jiao Tong University has now clarified this mechanism through detailed analysis of the electrolyte, anode, cathode over battery cycling. The team discovered that, rather than forming a protective film on the anode, the FSI− anions react rapidly with chloroaluminate species in the electrolyte. This reaction triggers a Cl−F exchange, producing AlF3 on the cathode. As a strong Lewis acid, AlF3 plays a critical catalytic role by accelerating the oxidation of NaCl to Cl2 during charging. The process significantly enhances the overall performance of rechargeable Na-Cl2 batteries.
Based on this discovery, the team engineered a polymerized ionic liquid catalyst with FSI− anions and integrated it into the cathode, which delivered a record current density of 30,000 mA g−1 and a cycle life of 300 cycles, outperforming state-of-the-art Na-Cl2 and Li-Cl2 batteries. This work has clarified the long-held misunderstanding on the role of fluorinated additives in rechargeable Na-Cl2 batter system, and reveals a paradigm shift i.e., transforming conventional anode-protective additives into efficient cathode catalysts. These findings can inspire the innovation in high-energy-density, high-rate battery systems, including sulfur- and oxygen-based battery chemistries.
###
See the article:
Unveiling cathode catalysis of fluorinated electrolyte additives for high-performance Na-Cl2 batteries
https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf333
Journal
National Science Review
Texas A&M researchers develop metallic gel that could transform batteries
The new heat-resistant material could revolutionize energy storage, making liquid metal batteries safe for mobile applications.
Texas A&M University
Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed the first known metallic gel. Unlike everyday gels, like those used in hand sanitizers, hair products or soft contact lenses, this new material is made entirely of metals and can withstand extreme heat. The discovery could be a game changer for energy storage.
The gel is created by mixing two metal powders. When heated, one metal melts into a liquid, while the other stays solid and forms a microscopic scaffold. The liquid metal remains trapped inside this structure, creating a gel-like material that looks solid but contains liquid within.
Everyday gels are semi-solid materials containing an organic backbone holding liquids in place at room temperature. Unlike them, metallic gels require very high temperatures, which, depending on the metals used, can be around 1,000 degrees Celsius or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Metallic gels have never been reported before, probably because no one thought liquid metals could be supported by an internal ultrafine skeleton,” said Dr. Michael J. Demkowicz, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who led the research. “What’s surprising in this case is that when the majority component — copper — was melted into liquid, it didn’t just collapse into a puddle. That’s what pure copper would have done,” he said.
Metallic gels made from highly reactive metals with strong electrical attraction, known as electronegativity, can be used as electrodes in liquid metal batteries (LMBs). In simple terms, these metals are very reactive and easily bond with other materials, which helps the battery work efficiently.
LMBs are special types of batteries that store and release large amounts of electrical energy. Instead of using solid materials like most batteries, they use layers of liquid metal. Because the parts are liquid, they do not wear out as quickly as regular batteries.
So far, LMBs have mainly been used in large stationary systems, such as backup power for building applications that need to keep running during a power outage. They have not been used in moving systems because the liquid inside shifts when the battery moves. This can cause a short circuit, which means the battery loses electrical power.
That is where metallic gel electrodes come in. By holding the liquid metal in place, they could make it possible to use LMBs in things that move, such as powering large ships or heavy industrial vehicles that can safely handle the heat of these batteries.
To test the idea, researchers built a small lab version of the battery using two cube-shaped electrodes. One was made from a mix of liquid calcium and solid iron, which acted as the anode, and the other from liquid bismuth and iron, which acted as the cathode. When placed in a molten salt, a hot liquid that allows electrical charge to flow between the two, the battery worked successfully. It produced electricity, and the mostly liquid electrodes stayed in shape and kept working as intended.
The research was performed by a team led by Demkowicz and doctoral student Charles Borenstein, who is the first author on a paper published in Advanced Engineering Materials.
Demkowicz and Borenstein said that what began as an exploration of the behaviors of metal composites of copper and tantalum resulted in this serendipitous discovery.
“We were just exploring different methods of processing composites by heat,” Demkowicz said. “All we wanted to do, at first, was to see: Does this even survive until one of the components melts?”
Borenstein originally put a composite of 25 percent tantalum and 75 percent copper into the furnace heated to copper’s melting point.
“Nothing happened, which I found kind of confusing,” he said, noting that the copper didn’t run out and pool. “We were pretty surprised by these results.”
After testing other percentages of both metals, he found that any combination of the metals with a volume of tantalum above 18 percent still retained the gel form.
The next step was to bring the new structure to a lab with a very high-resolution micro-CT scanner to examine the metallic gel’s interior. Although copper and tantalum are not ideal candidates for electrodes, they are for CT scanning. As anticipated, the tantalum formed a solid scaffolding structure holding the liquid copper within its lacunae.
That’s when the team shifted its research to the battery materials of iron, bismuth and calcium, and demonstrated the feasibility of the metallic gel LMB.
Demowicz said that an LMB made for transportable applications could also employ a gel-like composite electrolyte, such as a molten salt supported by a ceramic backbone, through which the electrode’s ions could pass.
He highlighted other potential applications for LMBs, including one that he said would be especially exciting to work on: powering a hypersonic vehicle, like those under feasibility study at the Texas A&M University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics. Hypersonic vehicles operate at extremely high temperatures and could theoretically be powered by a very hot LMB.
Coauthors on the paper are Dr. Brady G. Butler and Dr. James D. Paramore, visiting professors at Texas A&M, and Dr. Karl T. Hartwig, professor emeritus at the university. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration. The high-resolution CT scanning was performed at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility in Austin.
Journal
Advanced Engineering Materials
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Shape-Preserving Metallic Gels with Applications as Electrodes for Liquid Metal Batteries
Removal of hemicellulose from alkaline lignin improved electrochemical performance of hard carbon for sodium-ion battery application
image:
Schematic illustration of CAL- and PAL-based HC structure and electrochemical performance.
view moreCredit: Nethmi Kulanika Dayarathne and Zhanying Zhang from Queensland University of Technology.
A research team from Queensland University of Technology has developed an effective strategy to enhance sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) by using lignin, a natural polymer, as sustainable precursor for hard carbon anodes. Lignin, which is a by-product of processing biomass, has chemical treated to eliminate its hemicellulose. The purified lignin was used to make hard carbon (HC) with improved structural properties, like short-range graphitic layers, fewer defects, and a better pore structure that facilitates sodium storage. Their findings demonstrated that removing hemicellulose significantly boosts the initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE, 76.1%) and the reversible capacity of the hard carbon (277.5 mAh g-1) , along with 86.1% capacity retention after 250 cycles. This study highlights that hemicellulose removal is a crucial first step in improving the electrochemical performance of lignin-derived HC.
As global energy demands soar, there is an urgent need for affordable, sustainable, and efficient battery technologies suitable for large-scale energy storage, such as powering homes or grid systems. Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are promising because sodium is abundant and cheap compared to lithium. However, the commercialization of SIBs is still limited by the lack of suitable anode materials offering high capacity, good rate performance and stable cycling. HC, a non-graphitizable carbon, has gained significant attention as anode material for SIBs. Its disordered microstructure with turbostratic domains and nanopores enables efficient sodium storage through adsorption and intercalation. Lignin, a renewable, aromatic-rich polymer and the byproduct of the pulp and paper industry, is very attractive as a precursor to synthesize HC. However, HC generated from alkaline lignin obtained from NaOH pretreatment often suffers from low ICE and insufficient reversible capacity, posing a major challenge for SIB application.
The Solution: The researchers reported a straightforward and effective strategy to remove hemicellulose from crude alkaline lignin (CAL) to enhance the electrochemical performance of HC anodes. The results of this work reveal that purified alkaline lignin (PAL) has higher carbon content, fewer oxygen-containing functional groups and more uniform aromatic structure compared to CAL, mainly due to the removal of hemicellulose (xylan and arabinan). PAL-based HC consistently outperformed CAL-based HC at every carbonization condition tested. The PAL-based HC sample that carbonized at optimum carbonization condition of 1300 °C and 4 °C min-1 (PAL4-13) achieved the best performance, delivering a reversible capacity if 277.5 mAh g-1 and ICE of 76.1% and excellent capacity retention of 86.1% over 250 cycles. In contrast, the CAL-based HC showed its best performance, offering only 198.5 mAh g-1 reversible capacity and 60.2% of ICE at 1400 °C at 4 °C min-1 (CAL4-14). The superior performance of PAL4-13 is attributed to its favorable microstructure, including lower open porosity, higher closed pore volume, reduced defects and wide interlayer spacing. These results highlight hemicellulose removal as an effective and practical strategy for enhancing the electrochemical properties of alkaline lignin-based HC.
The Future: Future research will focus on further improving the ICE and reversible capacity through advanced modification approaches while investigating the underlying mechanism for the lower ICE. Despite the progress achieved, the relatively low ICE continues to be a key barrier to scaling up practical application. Future studies should aim to boost ICE while improving reversible capacity and electrochemical performance. Beyond purification, approaches such as heteroatom doping, structural modification and surface functional group regulation should be considered. Simultaneously, uncovering the underlying mechanism of SEI formation, its composition, stability and growth behavior will be vital for mitigating irreversible capacity loss and enhancing battery performance.
The Impact: This study provides a valuable foundation for the rational design of lignin-derived HC anodes, highlighting the critical role of the removal of hemicellulose and precise carbonization parameters. It contributes to advancing sustainable materials for next-generation energy storage systems.
The research has been recently published in the online edition of Materials Futures, a prominent international journal in the field of interdisciplinary materials science research.
Reference: Nethmi Kulanika Dayarathne, Eric Campbell, Mansi Goyal, Mu Xiao, Xueping Song, Cheng Yan, Hongxia Wang, Dawei Wang, Yu Lin Zhong, Zhanying Zhang. Removal of Hemicellulose from Alkaline Lignin Improved Electrochemical Performance of Hard Carbon for Sodium-Ion Battery Application[J]. Materials Futures. DOI: 10.1088/2752-5724/ae1522
Journal
Materials Futures
Article Title
Removal of Hemicellulose from Alkaline Lignin Improved Electrochemical Performance of Hard Carbon for Sodium-Ion Battery Application
No comments:
Post a Comment