Shock! There is no replacement for NMP, but has the lithium battery found a replacement technology? !

The editor has been paying attention to various information on the NMP supply chain, and today was shocked to find that some researchers have identified a replacement for lithium battery technology! The technology of the new energy industry is really updated frequently, and it can catch up with the technological change of mobile phones. New energy vehicles bought this year may be behind in technology next year. A few days ago, the editor also talked to you about BYD’s new technology of body-battery integration. In fact, Weilai and Tesla are also about to release new energy vehicles with new technology. Lithium-ion batteries were used NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone) as raw materials is the current power source for new energy electric vehicles; however, because lithium batteries are too expensive for long-term grid-scale energy storage systems, the difficulty of obtaining lithium is also getting bigger. As a result, researchers has researched to look for alternatives to lithium-ion battery technology.

Why do you want to develop an alternative technology for lithium batteries? !

First, lithium’s high energy density combined with renewable resources can support the capacity of grid-scale energy storage systems; however, lithium carbonate is prohibitively expensive. Lithium battery costs are rising for a number of reasons: supply chain bottlenecks caused by COVID-19; conflict between Russia and Ukraine; increased demands from auto companies; high environmental costs and the potential for human rights violations, leaving many governments to give the green light to mining Lithium mines can’t make up their minds; and so on.

Against such an environmental backdrop, the University of Houston conducted and published new research in Nature Communications, showing that ambient-temperature solid-state sodium-sulfur battery technology is a viable alternative to lithium-ion battery technology (For grid-level energy storage systems). Here, the editor of WIT FENGZE & ZESHENG has to ask, does sodium-sulfur battery technology need to use NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone) solvent? This question requires a more professional person to answer. Let’s go back to the solid-state sodium-sulfur battery technology at room temperature:

The research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), included the Cullen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston’s Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH), and principal investigator Yan Yao, who is a researcher in Yao’s group. Ye Zhang, Xiaowei Chi and Fang Ha of UH, Steven Kmiec of Iowa State University and co-corresponding author Steve Martin, Rice University, Purdue University and the University of California, Irvine, are all collaborators on the project.

Yan Yao, Cullen professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and principal investigator of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston (TcSUH), said:

The quest for new solid electrolytes for all-solid sodium batteries must concurrently be low cost, easily fabricated, and have incredible mechanical and chemical stability.

“To date, no single sodium solid electrolyte has been able to achieve all four of these requirements at the same time.”

However, Yan Yao, Cullen Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his colleagues developed a homogeneous glassy electrolyte that enables reversible sodium plating and stripping at a greater current density than previously possible.This may be a new type of oxysulfide glass electrolyte that can meet the above four requirements at the same time.

Ye Zhang, who works as a research associate in Yao’s group, said:The oxysulfide glass has a distinct microstructure, resulting in a completely homogeneous glass structure.“At the interface between sodium metal and the electrolyte, the solid electrolyte forms a self-passivating interphase that is essential for reversible plating and stripping of sodium.”

It has been proven difficult to achieve stable plating and stripping of sodium metal using a sulfide electrolyte.

“Our study overturned this perception by establishing not only the highest critical current density among all Na-ion conducting sulfide-based solid electrolytes, but also enabling high-performance ambient-temperature sodium-sulfur batteries,” Yao explained.

“The new structural and compositional designed strategies presented in this work and were provided a new paradigm in the development of safe, low-cost, energy-dense, and long-lifetime solid-state sodium batteries,” Zhang added.

Of course, all studies are still in the research stage, and whether it is finally implemented or put into use remains to be repeatedly tested. At present, lithium-ion batteries are still the main source of power for new energy vehicles. NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone) solvent is still one of the necessary materials, which is not to be ignored.