The article “The
Future”, Lockett (2022) introduces a new discovery of lithium-sulphur batteries
and how it will shape the future. Currently the battery tech of choice has
always been lithium-ion battery, however they have some downsides to using it.
According to Lockett (2022),
the raw materials that are needed to build lithium-ion battery are lithium,
graphite, cobalt and manganese. However, cobalt is environmentally
damaging as they leach out toxic chemical when mining it. There is also the
life cycle problem where the lithium-ion battery will lose its power storage
capacity if it is repeatedly being charged, battery degradation is also an
issue for the electronic vehicle (EV) world as it will cost a fortune to
replace the battery in it, thus it will have to be thrown away and contributed
to electronic waste which is becoming a problem for the world to deal with.
There is also the density problem as Lithium-ion battery packs are quite
energy-dense but is heavy and bulky. This will limit the EV range as the batteries
are heavy, and it will make it unfeasible to adopt for some application like
commercial electric planes and ships. It was stated that “On the surface,
lithium-sulphur as a compound seems to solve all of lithium-ion’s problems” (Lockett,
2022, para .9) which implies that all these is in theory, and it has not been
fully tested out yet.
Lithium-sulphur has shown the
potential to replace the current battery choice as it is more energy dense and
cheap compared to lithium-ion. Furthermore, it is not harmful to the
environment as well. However, the
drawback of lithium-sulphur is that they suffer from a short lifespan.
The mining of raw materials for
lithium-sulphur is environmentally friendly as Earth has abundant resources of
lithium and sulphur therefore that we can minimise the mining’s ecological
impact to the ecosystem as well as ensure a stronger supply chain (Lockett,
2022). With global warming being a huge concern and lithium-sulphur being
environmentally friendly, it can be a huge reason for it to be able to replace
lithium-ion battery.
Another benefit to using
lithium-sulphur battery is their high energy density due to the composition of
sulphur. The specific energy density of lithium-ion is between 260 – 270 wh/kg
(Dragonfly Energy, 2022), while the theoretical value of lithium-sulphur is 10
times that of lithium-ion, estimated to be 2500 wh/kg. The higher the energy
density, the longer the battery can emit a charge in relation to its size. As a
result, it can store a higher amount of energy which allows the appliance to
last for a longer period. Moreover, the cost to produce lithium-sulphur is also
cheaper compared to lithium-ion as cobalt is a rare metal compared to sulphur.
Cobalt has a price of around $75000 per Metric Ton in which it had increase
over the last twelve months, while the price of sulphur is only $382 per Metric
Ton. By comparison, for 1 ton of cobalt equates to about 200 tons of sulphur
(Liddle, 2022). Hence, their costs per unit of power is able to offer
substantial savings (Merrifield, 2020) when compared to cobalt. As consumers
nowadays demand a faster charge time from their devices, the higher energy
density of lithium-sulphur while being low in cost, can be said to be an
improvement to lithium-ion battery hence replacing it as the upcoming battery
tech of choice.
Despite the benefits of
lithium-sulphur, the short lifespan of lithium-sulphur is hindering it from
becoming available to the market. The short life cycle is due to its chemical
component as charging the battery causes a build-up of chemical deposits called
polysulfides that will degrade the cell hence reduces the amount of time the
battery can be recharge repeatedly. However, scientists have been trying to
figure out ways to experiment on this chemical reaction in order to reduce the
build up of chemical deposits. According to Lockett (2022), scientists at
Drexel University found a chemical reaction of sulphur that stops this cell
degradation called monoclinic gamma-phase sulphur, which means that the battery
can charge for at least 4000 charge cycle without a drop in capacity. However, scientists are still
trying to decipher this phenomenon behind this phase of sulphur that is created
or how to ensure it stays that way. So further research is needed in order to
develop a reliable battery that can be used in billions of computers, electric
cars, and the like.
In conclusion, I believe that
the use of lithium-sulphur battery would change human as it can enable the use
of commercial planes and ship to run on electricity as fuel lives and it allows
a lot of activities to go electric hence making the emission of carbon
dioxide to be much lesser there are more benefits to using lithium-sulphur
battery compared to lithium-ion battery, in terms of its eco-friendliness, high
energy capacity while being cost efficient.
Reference
Dragonfly
Energy (2022, December 14). Why does energy density matter in batteries?
Liddle, G
(2022, March 15). Lithium-Sulfur Batteries are a long term solution to rising
ev costs. Lyten
https://lyten.com/lithium-sulfur-batteries-are-a-long-term-solution-to-rising-ev-costs/
Lockett,
W (2022, April 17). The Future
Marrifield,
R (2020, June 5). Cheaper, lighter and more energy-dense: The promise of lithium-sulphur
batteries
Park, J.
W., Jo, S. C., Kim, M. J., Choi, I. H., Kim, B. G., Lee, Y. J., Choi, H. Y.,
Kang, S., Kim, TY., & Baeg, K. J.,(2021, April 2). Flexible
high-energy-density lithium-sulphur batteries using nanocarbon-embedded fibrous
sulphur cathodes and membrane separators. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41427-021-00295-y
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