Researchers have reportedly developed an iron-based cathode material that could lead to cheaper, safer, and more sustainable batteries. This new material eliminates the need for expensive and scarce metals like cobalt and nickel, potentially reducing the cost of manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs).
Oregon State University chemistry researcher Xiulei “David” Ji described their process of altering the reactivity of iron metal to achieve promising results.
“Our electrode can offer a higher energy density than the state-of-the-art cathode materials in electric vehicles. And since we use iron, whose cost can be less than a dollar per kilogram – a small fraction of nickel and cobalt, which are indispensable in current high-energy lithium-ion batteries – the cost of our batteries is potentially much lower,” he was quoted as saying by a science website ‘Interesting Engineering’.
The researcher mentioned that the use of scarce metals contributes up to 50 percent of the production cost of lithium-ion battery cells. He also warned that overexploiting these metals could cause a shortage and eventually collapse nickel- and cobalt-based battery manufacturing.
In contrast, the researcher notes that iron is the most abundant element on Earth by mass.
“We will not run out of iron till the sun turns into a red giant,” he says.
Scientists combined special chemicals with iron powder, lithium fluoride, and lithium phosphate to create iron salts that can switch back and forth. This allows the use of iron in the battery without changing other aspects of battery manufacturing.
“We’ve demonstrated that the materials designed with anions can break the ceiling of energy density for batteries that are more sustainable and cost less,” Ji explained.
“We’re not using some more expensive salt in conjunction with iron – just those the battery industry has been using and then iron powder,” he added.
“To put this new cathode in applications, one needs to change nothing else —no new anodes, no new production lines, no new design of the battery. We are just replacing one thing, the cathode,” added Ji.