Battery companies actively intervene in lithium iron manganese phosphate
In fact, in addition to material companies, battery companies have already begun their deployment of lithium iron manganese phosphate, and CATL directly invested in a lithium iron manganese phosphate material factory.
CATL’s M3P
In February this year, CATL disclosed that it planned to launch a new battery product with the model M3P.
The industry speculates that the M3P battery should be a lithium iron phosphate battery, or it may be a lithium manganese iron phosphate battery.
In addition, in the technology roadmap of CATL, it is expected to launch LxFP batteries in 2023, and the industry guesses that it should also be lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries.
Lithium iron manganese phosphate
In November 2021, Litai Lithium, a subsidiary of CATL, was engaged in the R&D and production of cathode materials, anode materials, electrolytes and high-purity lithium compounds for lithium-ion batteries.
At present, the company’s core product is lithium manganese iron phosphate material, and has a number of patents for lithium iron manganese phosphate.
The company has a production capacity of 2,000 tons/year of lithium iron manganese phosphate, and plans to expand the production capacity of lithium iron manganese phosphate materials, which is expected to be a new battery base for CATL.
Some manufacturers have also planned to use lithium iron manganese phosphate as an upgrade route for lithium iron phosphate, but at that time, due to the national policy tilted towards ternary materials with higher energy density, various manufacturers have embraced ternary high-capacity materials, so this route did not become mainstream, but some manufacturers also have technical patent reserves related to lithium iron manganese phosphate.
Low cost, high safety, long lifespan
Due to its low cost, high safety and good cycle life, lithium iron phosphate batteries have counterattacked ternary batteries and become one of the mainstream battery routes for new energy vehicles. However, its energy density shortcomings also need to be broken through.
The theoretical gram capacity (170mAh/g) of lithium iron phosphate and lithium iron manganese phosphate is the same, but the discharge platform is different: the open circuit voltage discharge platform of manganese ion in lithium manganese iron phosphate is 4.1V, and the overall discharge platform of lithium manganese iron phosphate is 3.8V-4.1 V.
The theoretical discharge platform of lithium iron phosphate is 3.4V, and the actual level is 3.2-3.3V. Compared with lithium iron phosphate, lithium iron manganese phosphate has a higher voltage platform, and the energy density can be about 15% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, and retains the safety and low-cost characteristics of lithium iron phosphate cells.
Therefore, the industry believes that in the future, iron manganese phosphate Lithium batteries are expected to be applied on a large scale in new energy vehicles and other fields.
In addition, the preparation process of lithium iron manganese phosphate is not much different from the existing lithium iron phosphate production system. It is mainly necessary to solve the problem of low electrical conductivity through modification technologies such as coating, doping, and nano meterization, and the cost difference between the two is also within the acceptable range.
It can be seen that with the return of lithium iron phosphate batteries to the mainstream, more and more attention has been paid to its upgrade direction, and the industry’s investment in its technology research and development has continued to increase, which has also contributed to the application and clear demand prospects of lithium iron manganese phosphate.
A “good partner” of ternary materials !
In addition, the particle size of lithium iron manganese phosphate is about 3-5 μm, which is lower than that of lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, and it has composite properties, which also makes lithium iron manganese phosphate as an important upgrade direction of lithium iron phosphate.
It can be doped and mixed with ternary materials, so that the safety and cycle performance of composite materials are more excellent, and it is regarded as a “good partner” of ternary materials in the industry.
In the iterative process of ternary materials to high nickel, there is currently research to compound lithium iron manganese phosphate with high nickel ternary to improve the safety performance of high nickel ternary materials.
If the research and development of this technology is successful and widely used, it is expected to drive the demand for lithium iron manganese phosphate materials.
With the completion and production of several lithium iron manganese phosphate material projects and the application of leading battery companies, some domestic material companies expect that domestic mass production will be stabilized by 2023 at the latest, and large-scale applications will be applied to the electric vehicle sector.
