Abstract
Lithium-ion batteries are overreliant on cobalt containing cathodes. Current projections estimate that hundreds of millions of electric vehicles (EVs) will be on the road by 2050, and this ever-growing demand threatens to deplete global cobalt reserves at an alarming rate. Moreover, cobalt supply chain issues have significantly increased cobalt prices throughout the last decade. As such, energy storage research and development need to reduce the reliance on cobalt to meet ever-growing demand for lithium-ion batteries. The present review summarizes the science and technology gaps and potential of numerous cobalt-free Li-ion cathodes including layered, spinel, olivine, and disordered rock-salt systems. Despite the promising performance of these Co-free cathodes, scale-up and manufacturing bottlenecks associated with these materials must also be addressed to enable widespread adoption in commercial batteries. Overall, this review broadly highlights the enormous promise of “zero-cobalt” Li-ion batteries to enable sustainable production of EVs in the coming decades.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2103050 |
| Journal | Advanced Energy Materials |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 3 2022 |
Funding
This research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE), was sponsored by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), (Program manager: Peter Faguy, and Office Director: David Howell). The authors also acknowledge the members of the Emerging and Solid-State Batteries Group in the Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division, and the Energy Storage and Conversion Group in the Chemical Sciences Division, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the useful discussions and feedback. This paper has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this paper, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). This research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT‐Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE), was sponsored by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO), (Program manager: Peter Faguy, and Office Director: David Howell). The authors also acknowledge the members of the Emerging and Solid‐State Batteries Group in the Electrification and Energy Infrastructures Division, and the Energy Storage and Conversion Group in the Chemical Sciences Division, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the useful discussions and feedback. This paper has been authored by UT‐Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE‐AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid‐up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this paper, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).
Keywords
- cobalt
- electric vehicles
- lithium-ion batteries
- next-generation cathodes
- supply chains
