Video: Scientists use iron to create cheaper, safer, sustainable lithium-ion batteries

Researchers have reportedly developed a new iron-based cathode material that could lead to cheaper, safer, and more sustainable batteries. This breakthrough could eliminate the need for expensive and scarce metals like cobalt and nickel, thereby reducing the manufacturing costs of electric vehicles (EVs).

Xiulei “David” Ji, a chemistry researcher at Oregon State University, explained their process of transforming the reactivity of iron metal to achieve promising results.

“Our electrode can provide a higher energy density compared to the current state-of-the-art cathode materials used in electric vehicles. Since we utilize iron, which costs less than a dollar per kilogram – a fraction of the cost of nickel and cobalt, essential in today’s high-energy lithium-ion batteries – the potential cost of our batteries is significantly lower,” Ji stated in an interview with the science website ‘Interesting Engineering’.

Ji emphasized that the use of scarce metals contributes up to 50 percent of the production cost of lithium-ion battery cells. He also cautioned that the overuse of these metals might lead to a shortage, potentially collapsing nickel and cobalt-based battery manufacturing.

Conversely, iron is the most abundant element on Earth by mass. “We won’t run out of iron until the sun becomes a red giant,” Ji noted.

To create the iron salts capable of reversing reactions, scientists mixed special chemicals with iron powder, lithium fluoride, and lithium phosphate. This method allows the use of iron in batteries without altering other components of battery production.

“We have demonstrated that materials designed with anions can surpass the energy density limits for more sustainable and cost-effective batteries,” Ji explained.

He added, “We are not incorporating some expensive salt along with iron – just the salts already used by the battery industry combined with iron powder.”

“To implement this new cathode in applications, nothing else needs to be changed – no new anodes, production lines, or battery designs. We are simply replacing one component, the cathode,” Ji concluded.