Entering the R & D department, Zhang Xianwen is leading three engineers to do sodium-ion battery assembly test research, the reporter noted that in the corner of the room stored a bag of walnut shells, just when the reporter was puzzled, the person in charge of the company, but also Hefei University of Technology, College of Automotive and Transportation Engineering Professor Zhang Xianwen explained: This is not a 'garbage' but a real 'treasure'.
'We turn waste into treasure, collect the waste walnut shells, and after unique processes, we use green power carbonisation to prepare high value-added hard carbon, which is used as anode material for sodium batteries.' Zhang Xianwen said, walnut shells from a wide range of sources, low cost, excellent performance, after pyrolysis conversion, turned into raw materials for sodium-ion batteries, to achieve waste into treasure and cost reduction and efficiency.
Similar to lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries are also a 'rocking chair battery', mainly relying on sodium ions in the positive and negative electrode 'movement' to achieve charge and discharge. So what are the benefits of using sodium-ion batteries?
'First of all, the sodium-ion battery can solve the lithium ore mainly from imports of this neck problem, it's fast charging and discharging, good low-temperature performance, minus 30 degrees Celsius, the power retention rate is still more than 80%, the overall cost of lithium can be reduced by 30% to 40%.' Zhang Xianwen introduced, the microstructure and composition of the shell-like material is very suitable for sodium ion transport and migration, 'a comprehensive view, the use of fruit shells as raw materials, is to do hard carbon a very good choice.'
Today, the sodium-ion battery materials developed by Zhang Xianwen's team have been able to realise the production of battery cells, and are applied in a number of scenarios such as new energy vehicles, mobile power sources and energy storage systems.
