Will New Battery Cathode Material Revolutionize EV Energy Storage ?

A research team led by Georgia Tech’s Hailong Chen developed a new, low-cost cathode that could radically improve lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and transform the electric vehicle (EV) market and large-scale energy storage systems.

The material, iron chloride (FeCl3), costs only 1-2% of typical cathode materials while storing the same amount of electricity. Cathode materials affect capacity, energy, and efficiency and have a major role in a battery’s performance, lifespan, and affordability. The team published its work in Nature Sustainability.

Batteries are responsible for approximately 50% of an EV’s total cost. While LIBs store more energy in a smaller package and power a device longer between charges, they contain expensive metals, including semiprecious elements like cobalt and nickel, and have a high manufacturing cost. Conventional LIBs use liquid electrolytes to transport lithium ions for storing and releasing energy and have hard limits on how much energy can be stored. They also can leak and catch fire. However, all-solid-state LIBs use solid electrolytes, dramatically boosting a battery’s efficiency and reliability and making it safer and capable of holding more energy. Still in the development and testing phase, these batteries would be a considerable improvement. The team’s cathode contains only iron (Fe) and chlorine (Cl)—abundant, affordable, widely used elements found in steel and table salt.

In initial tests, FeCl3 performed as well as or better than the other, much more expensive cathodes. It has a higher operational voltage than the popularly used cathode LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate, or LFP), which is the electrical force a battery provides when connected to a device.