Third-Generation Battery Safety Will Make Current Battery Technology Obsolete - lithium ion cell

I recently hosted a forum on battery safety at the Battery Show, a meeting in Detroit each fall on the theme of car batteries and electric cars, four battery separator companies have compared and discussed their current and next generation technologies.
The four speakers were CTO level executives at the battery separator manufacturing company, and they quickly reached a consensus on the next safety level of the battery separator.
As you can see in this article, the consensus we reached has a profound impact on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
General Motors (NYSE:GM)
Along with others trying to compete in the electric car leather hit.
Electrovaya (a company)OTCQX:EFLVF)
GM is the first company to offer batteries based on this technology, but others will follow up soon, and a little-known license agreement may make GM the first to be widespread in mainstream electric vehiclesFair warning -
The next step is a technical section, followed by a discussion of the company.
In addition, a list of the four companies presented at the meeting is listed here and links are provided.
Let's get into the technology section.
The lithium ion battery consists of four components: anode, cathode, diaphragm and electrolyte.
During the charge/discharge cycle, the anode and cathode hold lithium and the electrolyte shuttle back and forth.
For those of us who are old enough to fill our car batteries every few months, we know that early batteries have no partitions.
However, if you want to make the battery smaller, you want to get these electrodes close to each other.
But here's the problem.
You get sparks when you get them close to each other.
The electrolyte is flammable, just like gasoline or lighter liquids.
Sparks in a container filled with electrolyte are not good.
In the separator, the membrane, like a very, very thin sponge, has very, very small holes that can hold the electrolyte and allow the ion to flow back and forth, but can prevent the electrode from touching the electricity.
The result is a high energy density battery without Sparks, and the resulting fire.
Most of the time.
The separator technology began in early 1990, and even before that, as these bare films made of materials melted at relatively low temperatures were stretched to give them strength.
This combination
Low melting temperature and high tensile ratio-
This means that at a lower temperature than the melting temperature, they shrink sharply.
In 2001, some scientists at Polypore developed a method that can maintain shrinkage in a short period of time, close to the melting temperature, and even several degrees higher than the melting temperature.
They do this by applying a very thin layer of ceramic nanoparticles to the separator.
As shown in the figure, the bare film is the first generation separator, and the coating film is the second generation separator. The first-
The first generation separator began to shrink by about 100 ° C and shrunk by 150 ° C catastrophic
The second generation started at about 150 degrees Celsius, reducing by 200 degrees Celsius in a catastrophic way.
When something else begins to happen within the cell, the third generation separator is stable above 300 °c.
Then we will discuss what each company is doing.
When there is any type of manufacturing defect, or when the battery is under pressure from heat or high current, it causes hot spots inside the battery.
The first or second generation separator can be reduced from this hot spot and open a complete
It is blown very short, and then more heat, shrinkage, and viscous cycles are generated, eventually ending in a fire or explosion.
The separator is a weak link and any failure can cause the heat to get out of control.
However, with the third generation separator, the separator is no longer a weak link.
On the contrary, when a short film is generated, the separator remains intact and the next weakest link is downgraded.
In most cases, the next weakest link is the aluminum collector (
On which cathode is applied)
Oxidation into alumina, insulator.
Its breakdown leads to a decrease in conductivity rather than an increase like the first and second generation separators.
This leads to a virtuous cycle in which more heat reduces the shortage rather than increasing the shortage.
See the following picture from the autopsy after the nail penetration test (
Common safety test for lithium ion batteries)
The green aluminum current collector ends with 100 micron alumina, breaking the short circuit of this artificial manufacturing.
Some companies discussed the third generation separator technology purchased from Evonik last year, as well as the lithium battery electrode plant that used the technology to supply materials for Mercedes electric vehicles.
They have produced batteries for 20,000 Mercedes smart electric vehicles, and they claim there is no battery accident.
They are the only battery company to have a third generation separator today, though it won't last long.
As a stock, you will be tempted to buy them on the bright future of being the pioneer of the technology, but, since the current market cap is almost $0. 3 billion, TTM earns just $25 million and it's hard to justify it, they have to get rock stars to execute in order to make a return.
LG Chem and GM: It is well known that LG Chem provides batteries for Volt and will also provide batteries for bolts.
They also approved a technology from Optodot that uses ceramic boehmite in lithium-ion batteries.
It is not clear in the press release whether this includes the technology developed by Optodot for most ceramic separators or whether it is limited to the coating on conventional separators.
Just before this license, LG has sold its internal battery separator production plant to Toray, another factory (
Second Generation)
Producer of lithium battery separator.
As an outsider, this may indicate that LG will use the third-
Power generation separator based on Optodot technology.
If so, we can expect to see world-class safety when the batteries with these separators come on the market.
So Mercedes and GM are moving toward the third generation.
But what about the others?
The first thing to note is that there are two other third-generation producers, freudberg (private)
Mitsubishi Paper (TYO: 3864)
Five in total.
What about other leaders?
What I know is: BMW: a second generation battery separator made by Samsung may be used today.
I haven't made any public announcements about Samsung and third.
Generation separator, though I would be surprised if they didn't evaluate all of this. Ford (NYSE:F)
: Like BMW, it is possible to use a second generation separator, although these batteries are manufactured by Panasonic.
Bags are used by BMW, Ford, Mercedes, Nissan and GM.
Tesla: The cylindrical batteries used by Tesla are much smaller, and the safety hazards used alone are much smaller, but since there are more cylindrical batteries, their total number is much smaller. . .
Well, people are arguing about the total amount.
Their batteries are produced by Panasonic and use the advanced second generation separator produced by Sumitomo Corporation.
They may be the best in the class, but this is still the class for this year.
However, Panasonic will not let them fall behind, and their own battery technology experts are the best in the world.
Nissan: Nissan's first-generation batteries use the first-generation separator.
Their improved battery has better thermal stability, which may include the upgrade of the separator.
Beyond that, nothing is public or even rumored.
Summary Mercedes has been using third parties
For years, the generation separator in smart electric vehicles has been the leader.
Unlike all competitors, their Smart EV has no battery accidents on the road.
LG Chem and GM are certainly moving in that direction with Optodot's permission.
Despite the lack of public information, Ford, Nissan and BMW are moving in that direction.
With their big cells, they have to keep up.
Tesla, which has its own unit, module and packaging architecture, may not need it.
Only they and Panasonic know the answer. Last -
There is a comment on the purpose of a technical article like this.
I won't write these so investors can blindly follow some tips to buy and sell shares in Tesla, GM, Ford, electric, or any other mention.
Instead, I am trying to give some additional information to investors who want to make a fully informed decision on whether to increase or decrease their positions, and they may have a hard time piecing together that information themselves.
Disclosure: I am/We are long TSLA.
This article was written by myself and expressed my views.
I received no compensation (
In addition to Seeking Alpha).
I have no business relationship with any stock company mentioned in this article.
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