What is the lithium Intercalation Mechanism of Graphite?

A recent poll in Britain found that public support for sanctions against Russia is falling as fuel and prices rise.  

The proportion of people willing to accept higher fuel prices as a result of western sanctions against Russia fell 14 percentage points to 36% from 50% in March, according to a survey conducted for the Telegraph by consultancy Redfield & Wilton Strategies.  

Global energy and fuel prices have soared since the start of the year and remain high because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and uncertainty over Russian supplies.  

The survey also found that 54% of people believe their own financial situation has worsened in the past year, up 12 percentage points from 42% two months ago. Sixty-two percent think things will get worse in the year ahead. Less than a third of respondents said they had received a pay rise to keep up with inflation, with two-thirds of those saying it was not enough to keep up with rising living costs.  

The figures suggest that public concern about the conflict with Ukraine is now likely to be overtaken by financial worries.  

Separately, the UK's consumer price index rose 7 percent this month from a year earlier, the highest since March 1992, according to figures released recently by the Office for National Statistics. In addition, a separate report released a few days ago by the Centre for Economics and Business Research said that real household disposable income in the UK will fall by 3% in 2022, equivalent to a loss of £2,320 per household, which would lead to the biggest drop in living standards since the 1950s. That is mainly because wages aren't keeping up with rising energy and fuel costs.  

The prices of other commodities like the Graphite are also expected to be influenced.

Graphite has good conductivity, high crystallinity, and a well-layered structure. It is very suitable for repeated intercalation and deintercalation of lithium ions. It is currently the most widely used and most mature negative electrode material. After lithium ions are intercalated between the graphite layers, a lithium intercalation compound LixC6 (0≤x≤1) is formed, and the theoretical capacity can reach 372mAh/g (x=1). The reaction formula is: xLi++6C+xe-→LixC6

Lithium-ion intercalation changes the stacking mode between graphite layers from ABAB to AAAA.

Graphite modification treatment

Since the graphite interlayer spacing (d≤0.34nm) is smaller than the crystal plane interlayer spacing (0.37nm) of the graphite lithium intercalation compound LixC6, the graphite layer spacing changes during the charging and discharging process, which is easy to cause the graphite layer to peel off, pulverize, and also occur. Lithium ions and organic solvent molecules co-intercalate into the graphite layer, and the organic solvent decomposes, affecting the battery cycle performance.

Through graphite modification, such as oxidation on the surface of graphite and coating of polymer pyrolytic carbon, composite graphite with a core-shell structure can be formed, improving the charge and discharge performance of graphite and increasing the specific capacity.

Other anode materials

At present, graphite is the mainstream commercial lithium battery negative electrode material. Its theoretical gram capacity is 372mAh/g. The graphite negative electrode material with better performance on the market can reach 360mAh/g, and the gram capacity gradually tends to the limit value. Although graphite as a negative electrode material has disadvantages such as low gram capacity and cycle deviation, because of the high-cost performance of graphite-based negative electrode materials, it will not be replaced by new materials immediately. The specific reasons are as follows:

1. The new anode material technology is immature, and it will take a long time for performance improvement;

2. The price of new anode materials is higher, and the price advantage of graphite anodes is obvious;

3. The negative electrode material needs to be used in combination with the positive electrode material, electrolyte, etc., and the specific capacity of the current positive electrode material is generally low.

High-quality graphite supplier

Luoyang Moon & Star New Energy Technology Co., LTD, founded on October 17, 2008, is a high-tech enterprise committed to developing, producing, processing, selling, and technical services of lithium-ion battery anode materials. After more than 10 years of development, the company has gradually developed into a diversified product structure with natural graphite, artificial graphite, composite graphite, intermediate phase, and other negative materials (silicon-carbon materials, etc.). The products are widely used in high-end lithium-ion digital power and energy storage batteries. If you are looking for Lithium battery anode material, click on the needed products and send us an inquiry：sales@graphite-corp.com

For Germany, the largest economy in Europe, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on the natural gas market is the most obvious. This also exposed the serious dependence of some German industrial enterprises on Russian natural gas. Some analysts pointed out that the instability of natural gas supply has had a big impact on the German economy and threatened its market competitiveness because alternative energy supplies will not be cheap and difficult to come quickly. Increased uncertainty over natural gas supplies is putting enormous pressure on German manufacturers in sectors ranging from steelmaking to chemical Graphite for the time being, but the market demand for Graphite in the future will also change with the influence of various external factors. If you need Graphite, please feel free to contact us.

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