Although lithium-ion batteries have been a great commercial success, however, their development has not been smooth and there are both opportunities and challenges for lithium-ion batteries and their researchers. According to the development of new lead-acid batteries in 2011 and the consolidation within the lead-acid battery industry in China, the application of sodium-sulfur batteries for energy storage by Japanese research workers, as well as the development of lithium-sulfur batteries and lithium-air batteries, which have been the focus of research institutes and schools in recent years, will have an impact on the current lithium-ion market.
In particular, a study reported that a recent major technological breakthrough by researchers in the United States will likely be lithium-air batteries have the potential to achieve a major leap forward in battery technology because it reduces weight and complexity compared to standard batteries. While standard batteries store all components internally, lithium-air batteries use oxygen from the air.
However, the biggest problem facing this technology is that the active oxygen reacts with other battery components. Researchers have discovered an electrolyte material that does not react with oxygen, allowing the battery to maintain stable performance after multiple charges and discharges. According to the researchers' estimates, the battery could theoretically store up to 10 times the power of existing lithium-ion batteries on the market. For researchers of lithium-ion batteries, it is imperative to further reduce the cost of raw materials and improve the cycle performance and stability of batteries through process innovation. From the direction of technology development, the following three aspects should be given great attention.
(1) Development of high-capacity lithium-ion power lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles;
(2) the development and use of new high-performance electrode materials, especially the development of high-performance cathode materials;
(3) further reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries and improve the safety performance of the battery for the commercial application of lithium-ion batteries, it is necessary to adjust the operation and management mode through the industry to achieve the requirements of the production of high standard batteries, in fact, this is also accounted for 40% of the global sales of cathode materials in China's most important concern and development, which is the same as why China is a manufacturing country but not a manufacturing power, this phenomenon in China's lithium-ion battery market also exists, and quite serious.
