Lithium iron phosphate
Lithium iron phosphate or lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) is an inorganic compound with the formula LiFePO Most lithium batteries (Li-ion) used in consumer electronics products use cathodes made of lithium compounds such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO Lithium iron phosphate exists naturally in the form of the mineral triphylite, but this material has insufficient purity for use in batteries. LiMPO |
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2024) |
There are 4 groups of patents on LFP battery materials:
- The University of Texas at Austin (UT) patented the materials with the crystalline structure of LiFePo4 and their use in batteries.
- Hydro-Québec, Université de Montréal and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) own patents, that claim improvements of the original LiFePo4 by carbon coating that enhance its conductivity.[22]
- The key feature of Li
1−xMFePO
4 from A123 Systems is the nano-LFP, which modifies its physical properties and adds noble metals in the anode, as well as the use of special graphite as the cathode. - The main feature of LiMPO
4 from Phostech is increased capacitance and conductivity by an appropriate carbon coating. The special feature of LiFePO
4 • zM from Aleees a high capacitance and low impedance obtained by the stable control of the ferrites and crystal growth. This improved control is realized by applying strong mechanical stirring forces to the precursors in high oversaturation states, which induces crystallization of the metal oxides and LFP.
These patents underlie mature mass production technologies. The largest production capacity is up to 250 tons per month.
In patent lawsuits in the US in 2005 and 2006, UT and Hydro-Québec claimed that LiFePO
4 as the cathode infringed their patents, US 5910382 and US 6514640. The patent claims involved a unique crystal structure and a chemical formula of the battery cathode material.
On April 7, 2006, A123 filed an action seeking a declaration of non-infringement and invalidity UT's patents. A123 separately filed two ex parte Reexamination Proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), in which they sought to invalidate the patents based upon prior art.
In a parallel court proceeding, UT sued Valence Technology, a company that commercializes LFP products that alleged infringement.
The USPTO issued a Reexamination Certificate for the '382 patent on April 15, 2008, and for the '640 patent on May 12, 2009, by which the claims of these patents were amended. This allowed the current patent infringement suits filed by Hydro-Quebec against Valence and A123 to proceed. After a Markman hearing, on April 27, 2011, the Western District Court of Texas held that the claims of the reexamined patents had a narrower scope than as originally granted. The key question was whether the earlier Goodenough's patents from the UT (licensed to Hydro-Quebec) were infringed by A123, that had its own improved versions of LiFePO4 patents, that contained cobalt dopant. The end results was licensing of Goodenough's patents by A123 under undisclosed terms.[23]
On December 9, 2008, the European Patent Office revoked Dr. Goodenough’s patent numbered 0904607. This decision basically reduced the patent risk of using LFP in European automobile applications. The decision is believed to be based on the lack of novelty.[24]
The first major settlement was the lawsuit between NTT and the UT. In October 2008,[25] NTT announced that they would settle the case in the Japan Supreme Civil Court for $30 million. As part of the agreement, UT agreed that NTT did not steal the information and that NTT would share its LFP patents with UT. NTT’s patent is also for an olivine LFP, with the general chemical formula of A
yMPO
4 (A is for alkali metal and M for the combination of Co and Fe), now used by BYD Company. Although chemically the materials are nearly the same, from the viewpoint of patents, A
yMPO
4 of NTT is different from the materials covered by UT. A
yMPO
4 has higher capacity than LiMPO
4. At the heart of the case was that NTT engineer Okada Shigeto, who had worked in the UT labs developing the material, was accused of stealing UT’s intellectual property.
As of 2020, an organization named LifePO+C claims to own the key IP and offers licenses. It is a consortium between Johnson Matthey, the CNRS, University of Montreal, and Hydro Quebec.
Research
Power density
LFP has two shortcomings: low conductivity (high overpotential) and low lithium diffusion constant, both of which limit the charge/discharge rate. Adding conducting particles in delithiated FePO
4 raises its electron conductivity. For example, adding conducting particles with good diffusion capability like graphite and carbon[26] to LiMPO
4 powders significantly improves conductivity between particles, increases the efficiency of LiMPO
4 and raises its reversible capacity up to 95% of the theoretical values. However, addition of conductive additives also increases the "dead mass" present in the cell that does not contribute to energy storage. LiMPO
4 shows good cycling performance even under charge/discharge current as large as 5C.[27]
Stability
Coating LFP with inorganic oxides can make LFP’s structure more stable and increase conductivity. Traditional LiCoO
2 with oxide coating shows improved cycling performance. This coating also inhibits dissolution of Co and slows the decay of LiCoO
2 capacity. Similarly, LiMPO
4 with an inorganic coating such as ZnO[28] and ZrO
2,[29] has a better cycling lifetime, larger capacity and better characteristics under rapid discharge. The addition of a conductive carbon increases efficiency. Mitsui Zosen and Aleees reported that addition of conducting metal particles such as copper and silver increased efficiency.[30] LiMPO
4 with 1 wt% of metal additives has a reversible capacity up to 140 mAh/g and better efficiency under high discharge current.
Metal substitution
Substituting other materials for the iron or lithium in LiMPO
4 can also raise efficiency. Substituting zinc for iron increases crystallinity of LiMPO
4 because zinc and iron have similar ionic radii.[31] Cyclic voltammetry confirms that LiFe
1−xM
xPO
4, after metal substitution, has higher reversibility of lithium ion insertion and extraction. During lithium extraction, Fe (II) is oxidized to Fe (III) and the lattice volume shrinks. The shrinking volume changes lithium’s returning paths.
Synthesis processes
Mass production with stability and high quality still faces many challenges.
Similar to lithium oxides, LiMPO
4 may be synthesized by a variety of methods, including: solid-phase synthesis, emulsion drying, sol-gel process, solution coprecipitation, vapor-phase deposition, electrochemical synthesis, electron beam irradiation, microwave process[vague], hydrothermal synthesis, ultrasonic pyrolysis and spray pyrolysis.
In the emulsion drying process, the emulsifier is first mixed with kerosene. Next, the solutions of lithium salts and iron salts are added to this mixture. This process produces nanocarbon particles.[32] Hydrothermal synthesis produces LiMPO
4 with good crystallinity. Conductive carbon is obtained by adding polyethylene glycol to the solution followed by thermal processing.[33] Vapor phase deposition produces a thin film LiMPO
4.[34] In flame spray pyrolysis FePO4 is mixed with lithium carbonate and glucose and charged with electrolytes. The mixture is then injected inside a flame and filtered to collect the synthesized LiFePO
4.[35]
Effects of temperature
The effects of temperature on lithium iron phosphate batteries can be divided into the effects of high temperature and low temperature.
Generally, LFP chemistry batteries are less susceptible to thermal runaway reactions like those that occur in lithium cobalt batteries; LFP batteries exhibit better performance at an elevated temperature. Research has shown that at room temperature (23 °C), the initial capacity loss approximates 40-50 mAh/g. However, at 40 °C and 60 °C, the capacity losses approximate 25 and 15 mAh/g respectively, but these capacity losses were spread over 20 cycles instead of a bulk loss like that in the case of room temperature capacity loss.[36]
However, this is only true for a short cycling timeframe. Later yearlong study has shown that despite LFP batteries having double the equivalent full cycle, the capacity fade rate increased with increasing temperature for LFP cells but the increasing temperature does not impact NCA cells or have a negligible impact on the aging of NMC cells.[37] This capacity fade is primarily due to the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) formation reaction being accelerated by increasing temperature.
LFP batteries are especially affected by decreasing temperature which possibly hamper their application in high-latitude areas. The initial discharge capacities for LFP/C samples at temperatures of 23, 0, -10, and -20 °C are 141.8, 92.7, 57.9 and 46.7 mAh/g with coulombic efficiency 91.2%, 74.5%, 63.6% and 61.3%. These losses are accounted for by the slow diffusion of lithium ions within electrodes and the formation of SEI that come with lower temperatures which subsequently increase the charge-transfer resistance on the electrolyte-electrode interfaces.[38] Another possible cause of the lowered capacity formation is lithium plating. As mentioned above, low temperature lowers the diffusion rate of lithium ions within the electrodes, allowing for the lithium plating rate to compete with that of intercalation rate. The colder condition leads to higher growth rates and shifts the initial point to lower state of charge which means that the plating process starts earlier.[39] Lithium plating uses up lithium which then compete with the intercalation of lithium into graphite, decreasing the capacity of the batteries. The aggregated lithium ions are deposited on the surface of electrodes in the form of “plates” or even dendrites which may penetrate the separators, short-circuiting the battery completely.[40]
See also
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