• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.56 no.6
• /
• pp.781-797
• /
• 2023

Recently, there has been a rapid response from mineral-demanding countries for securing critical minerals in a high tech industries. Graphite, while overwhelmingly dominated by China in production, is changing in global supply due to the exponential growth in EV battery sector, with active exploration in East Africa. Rare earth elements are essential raw materials widely used in advanced industries. Globally, there are ongoing developments in the production of REEs from three main deposit types: carbonatite, laterite, and ion-adsorption clay types. While China's production has decreased somewhat, it still maintains overwhelming dominance in this sector. Recent changes over the past few years include the rapid emergence of Myanmar and increased production in Vietnam. Nickel has been used in various chemical and metal industries for a long time, but recently, its significance in the market has been increasing, particularly in the battery sector. Worldwide, nickel deposits can be broadly classified into two types: laterite-type, which are derived from ultramafic rocks, and ultramafic hosted sulfide-type. It is predicted that the development of sulfide-type, primarily in Australia, will continue to grow, while the development of laterite-type is expected to be promoted in Indonesia. This is largely driven by the growing demand for nickel in response to the demand for lithium-ion batteries. The global lithium ores are produced in three main types: brine lake (78%), rock/mineral (19%), and clay types (3%). Rock/mineral type has a slightly higher grade compared to brine lake type, but they are less abundant. Chile, Argentina, and the United States primarily produce lithium from brine lake deposits, while Australia and China extract lithium from both brine lake and rock/mineral sources. Canada, on the other hand, exclusively produces lithium from rock/mineral type. Vanadium has traditionally been used in steel alloys, accounting for approximately 90% of its usage. However, there is a growing trend in the use for vanadium redox flow batteries, particularly for large-scale energy storage applications. The global sources of vanadium can be broadly categorized into two main types: vanadium contained in iron ore (81%) produced from mines and vanadium recovered from by-products (secondary sources, 18%). The primary source, accounting for 81%, is vanadium-iron ores, with 70% derived from vanadium slag in the steel making process and 30% from ore mined in primary sources. Intermediate vanadium oxides are manufactured from these sources. Vanadium deposits are classified into four types: vanadiferous titanomagnetite (VTM), sandstone-hosted, shale-hosted, and vanadate types. Currently, only the VTM-type ore is being produced.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.30 no.11
• /
• pp.636-640
• /
• 2020

Due to the serious air pollution problem, interest in eco-friendly vehicles is increasing. Solving the problem of pollution will necessitate the securing of high energy storage technology for batteries, the driving force of eco-friendly vehicles. The reason for the continuing interest in the transition metal oxide LiMO₂ as a cathode material with a layered structure is that lithium ions reveal high mobility in two-dimensional space. Therefore, it is important to investigate the effective intercalation and deintercalation pathways of Li⁺, which affect battery capacity, to understand the internal structure of the cathode particle and its effect on the electrochemical performance. In this study, for the cathode material, high nickel Ni_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1(OH)₂ precursor is synthesized by controlling the ammonia concentration. Thereafter, the shape of the primary particles of the precursor is investigated through SEM analysis; X-ray diffraction analysis is also performed. The electrochemical properties of LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ are evaluated after heat treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.50-56
• /
• 2016

Spherical lithium manganese oxide spinel, $Li_{1.10}Mn_{1.86}Al_{0.02}Mg_{0.02}O_4$ was prepared by wet-milling, spray-drying, and sintering process. In the spray-drying process, solid content in slurry was varied from 20 to 30 wt%. In the sintering process, the precursors have been sintered under air or $O_2$ atmosphere. While the as-prepared samples exhibit excellent electrochemical properties at room temperature, the discharge voltage profiles at 5.0C are very different one from another. The origin for the difference especially at initial state of discharge is oxygen defect. The sample prepared in air has larger capacity related to the plateau at 3.3 V (vs. $Li/Li^+$) which is caused by the oxygen defects than the one prepared in $O_2$. The difference of discharge voltage profiles especially at the final state of discharge comes from different diffusion rate of $Li^+$ ions. The sample prepared from 30 wt% solid content of slurry shows twice higher diffusion rate than the samples prepared from 20 wt% solid content, which is attributed to better compactness between primary particles for the sample prepared from 30wt % solid content than the one prepared by 20 wt%.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.143-149
• /
• 2015

Carbon-coated $Li_2MnSiO_4$ powders as the active materials for the cathode were synthesized by planetary ball milling and solid-state reaction, and their phase formation behavior and charge-discharge properties were investigated. Calcination temperature and atmosphere were controlled in order to obtain the ${\beta}-Li_2MnSiO_4$ phase, which was active electrochemically, and the carbon-coated $Li_2MnSiO_4$ active material powders with near single phase ${\beta}-Li_2MnSiO_4$ could be fabricated. The particles of the synthesized powders were secondary particles composed of primary ones of about 100 nm size. The carbon incorporation was essential to enable the Li ions to be inserted and extracted from $Li_2MnSiO_4$ active materials, and the initial capacity of 192 mAh/g could be obtained in the $Li_2MnSiO_4$ active materials with 4.8 wt% of carbon.