Lithium News

After being stabilized in an ambulance as he struggled to breathe, Jonathan Harter hit a low point. It was 2020, he was very sick with COVID-19, and his job as a lab technician at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was ending along with his research funding. “It was a weird situation where I felt a little […]

Two lithium mine auctions in China’s southwestern Sichuan province that began this week have received nearly 7,000 bids, with prices hundreds of times higher than starting levels and rising as of Thursday, a provincial government body said. An auction for a five-year exploration right to the Jiada Lithium Mine in Maerkang city that started on […]

Lithium-based solid-state batteries have some advantages, such as being less flammable. But they are also much less powerful. This is because the lithium ions in this type of battery have to diffuse through a solid electrolyte, which is a cumbersome process. Using a clever trick, a team led by Dr. Ingo Manke and Dr. Robert […]

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries power smartphones, electric vehicles, and storage for solar and wind energy, among other technologies. They descend from another technology, the lithium-metal battery, that hasn’t been developed or adopted as broadly. There’s a reason for that: While lithium-metal batteries have the potential to hold about double the energy that lithium-ion batteries can, they […]

Current batteries are limited by their required charging time and achievable range. The US Department of Energy (DOE) developed a fast-charge goal of 10 minutes to charge an electric vehicle (EV) battery. However, fast charging current Li-ion batteries can result in Li-metal plating of the carbon-anode and the potential formation of catastrophic lithium dendrite shorts. […]

A team of battery researchers led by the University of California San Diego and University of Chicago has developed a new methodology to produce the potentially game-changing thin-film solid-state electrolyte called lithium phosphorus oxynitride (LiPON). The team went on to implement their free-standing version of LiPON film in functional battery tests and found that it […]

Rather than being solely detrimental, cracks in the positive electrode of lithium-ion batteries reduce battery charge time, research done at the University of Michigan shows. This runs counter to the view of many electric vehicle manufacturers, who try to minimize cracking because it decreases battery longevity. “Many companies are interested in making ‘million-mile’ batteries using […]

Subaru Corporation and Panasonic Energy Co., Ltd. revealed that they have initiated discussions to establish a medium- to long-term partnership. The purpose of the collaboration is to meet the surging demand for battery electric vehicles and automotive batteries in the rapidly expanding EV segment. Subaru and Panasonic Energy would hold discussions to explore the possibility […]

Li-Cycle today launched one of Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery recycling centers, and it can process full EV battery packs. Li-Cycle in Germany Toronto-headquartered Li-Cycle’s first European battery recycling center – what the company calls a “Spoke” – is in Magdeburg, Germany, northwest of Leipzig. The Magdeburg Spoke’s first main processing line at the 20,000-square-meter (215,000-square-foot) facility is […]

It’s official: The battery crunch is the new chip shortage. The chip shortage is still impacting vehicle supply, experts say, but automakers are now having to reckon with the battery supply chains as an even bigger headwind. Challenges surrounding electric vehicle production and the battery supply chain are finally materializing for legacy automakers and impacting […]