Is it supply chain technology or self-research? The secret behind the surge in battery life of domestic mobile phones

Since the screens of smartphones have become larger and larger, the battery life seems to have never been better. The experience of charging for several days in the feature phone era is gone forever.

Then again, how long was the screen use time of the previous feature phones? Is it 1 hour a day? Today's smartphones have so many functions, such big screens, and they have to be always online. The screen usage time is at least five or six hours. One charge a day seems to be very powerful!

If you have used domestic flagship models released in the past year, you will find that their battery life has made great progress, and they can basically be charged every two days. How did mobile phone batteries develop to their current level in just a dozen years? What are the Qinghai Lake battery, Blue Ocean battery, Jinsha River battery and other technologies that manufacturers have launched in the past year? Why are the time points so close?

Leap from Nickel to Lithium

The new generation of mobile phone users may not have heard of the magical theory that "charging the battery before it is used up will make the battery capacity smaller". This is one of the major shortcomings of the nickel-cadmium batteries used in early mobile phones - the memory effect. Later, nickel-metal hydride batteries appeared, and the memory effect was significantly improved.

Until around the turn of the millennium, the materials and manufacturing technology of lithium-ion batteries experienced major innovations, with costs significantly reduced, energy density increased, and the problem of battery memory effect solved. These improvements made lithium-ion batteries quickly become the standard choice in the mobile phone industry, and the entire industry officially entered the lithium battery era.

Traditional lithium batteries use liquid electrolytes, which limits the shape and size of the battery. Because the electrolyte must remain stable inside the battery while also preventing leakage and corrosion, a hard casing is often used, which limits the shape design of the battery. Additionally, liquid electrolytes may expand or burn when exposed to high temperatures or overcharge.

Later it evolved into lithium polymer batteries that are widely used in the industry. They use gel or solid electrolytes and are packaged with aluminum film. They have more freedom in size and shape and can flexibly adapt to increasingly compact internal spaces. electronic product. The thermal and mechanical stability of the battery is also better, thereby reducing safety risks.

After mobile phone battery technology developed to lithium polymer, it has not been significantly upgraded for a long time because the limitations of graphite anodes in lithium batteries have gradually emerged.

The theoretical specific capacity of graphite anode is limited to 372mAh/g, and the diffusion rate of lithium ions is low. These factors limit the improvement of battery energy density and fast charging capabilities.

In addition to the performance shortcomings of the material itself, natural graphite, as a non-renewable resource, also faces many problems.

According to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), global graphite reserves will be approximately 300 million tons in 2020. According to the current mining rate, global graphite resources are expected to be exhausted by 2050. At the same time, natural graphite, as a natural resource, is also affected by geographical factors like natural gas and oil, and its supply is not stable.

Artificial graphite can avoid the problems caused by natural graphite to a certain extent, but the production process of artificial graphite requires a large amount of energy and produces a large amount of wastewater. If not treated properly, it will cause serious damage to soil and water sources. Pollution is contrary to the "new energy" called "environmental protection".

There is also the most important influencing factor in business: interests. Based on the current production process, artificial graphite of the same purity is 20-30% more expensive than natural graphite. As natural graphite resources become less and less, the price of natural graphite will become more and more expensive.

Therefore, finding alternative materials to graphite has become one of the most important development directions in the lithium battery industry.

##The next generation of lithium batteries: silicon carbon anode

Whether it is Qinghai Lake battery, Blue Ocean battery or Jinsha River battery, they all mentioned it in their publicity As for "silicon carbon anode", this is also the key technology to solve the current battery problems.

As mentioned above, the shortcomings of graphite as a negative electrode material, are there any other materials that can replace it? Yes, that is silicon.

As an anode material, silicon has a theoretical specific capacity of up to 4200mAh/g, which is almost 11 times that of graphite. This means that lithium batteries using silicon anodes can theoretically significantly increase energy density, thereby extending the battery life and reducing the number of recharges.

However, silicon materials will undergo volume expansion of up to 300% during charging and discharging. This significant volume change will cause the rupture of the electrode material, thereby reducing the cycle life of the battery.

To overcome this challenge, scientists have developed silicon-carbon composites. By combining silicon nanoparticles with carbon materials, the stability of the carbon material can be used to suppress the volume expansion of silicon and improve the overall conductivity through the conductive network of carbon.

Although silicon-carbon anode technology has great potential in improving battery performance, its process difficulties still exist. The preparation of silicon-carbon anodes requires precise control of the material's nanostructure and ensuring uniform distribution of silicon and carbon. Additionally, first-time efficiency and cycle stability during battery manufacturing are also key challenges that need to be overcome.

Group14 and ATL

In fact, silicon-carbon anode battery technology has passed feasibility verification as early as the 1970s. Why did we not see a large number of consumer terminals adopting it until the past year?

We have to mention two companies, one is the well-known ATL (New Energy), which is the parent company of Ningde New Energy and Dongguan Xinnengde, and the other is the start-up company Group14.

On February 28, 2023, Group14 officially announced that it had supplied SCC55 materials to ATL to power 3C products such as next-generation smartphones, and said that mobile phones using SCC55 battery materials will soon be available.

A week later, on March 6, Honor released the world’s first smartphone equipped with silicon-carbon anode battery technology, the Magic5 series. Industry media TechInsights also confirmed that the technology was implemented by Group14’s battery materials Product SCC55 dominates.

We can also see in the video of the well-known disassembly of Up's main microcomputer that whether it is Qinghai Lake battery, Blue Ocean battery or Jinshajiang battery, they are all produced by Xinnengde Company and use ATL cells. . We can basically guess from this that the silicon carbon anode technology they use uses Group 14’s SCC55 material.

Why must it be SCC55 of Group14? Because there are currently not many companies that can mass-produce silicon-carbon anode materials, and Group14 has the largest share among them.

Tomorrow’s Star: SCC55

Before formally introducing SCC55, let’s first briefly understand what kind of company Group14 is.

Silicon ranks 14th in the periodic table of elements, which is where the “14” in Group14 comes from. Founded in 2015, this company is committed to converting lithium-ion batteries into lithium-silicon anode batteries to help solve energy storage problems. It has successively received investments from ATL, SK Materials, Porsche and other companies, with a cumulative amount of more than 600 million US dollars. It is the leading player in the lithium battery industry. A hot rising star.

As an emerging technology, silicon-carbon anodes are being tackled by many companies at home and abroad, and have received a lot of financing. Many of them have even released very amazing parameters on "PPT". However, many of them still remain in the laboratory or even theoretical state, far from meeting mass production requirements.

Group14 is almost the first to achieve large-scale mass production, and it also has unparalleled advantages in applications.

The uniqueness of the SCC55 lies in its structural design. The material consists of silicon nanoparticles embedded in a carbon scaffold. This structure allows the silicon particles to fully contact the electrolyte, thereby improving the battery's charge and discharge efficiency. In addition, the carbon scaffold provides mechanical support to prevent the silicon particles from expanding and shrinking during charge and discharge.

Therefore, the energy density of the SCC55 silicon anode battery is 50% higher than that of traditional lithium-ion batteries, and the charging speed is faster, theoretically only taking a few minutes.

SCC55 material is also easy to put into production. From button batteries to soft pack batteries, manufacturers can seamlessly put SCC55 into any lithium-ion battery production line, super factory or battery design without re-adjustment of the process.

Rather than concepts, large-scale mass production is the basis for profitability.

Group14’s two-step process makes scaling simple, first synthesizing carbon to create the carbon scaffold, then creating silicon inside the scaffold and adjusting the internal voids, ultimately forming the amazing SCC55. The specific process details have already been applied for global patents by Group14 and have become the cornerstone of its business empire.

Group14 has also designed an easily replicable process to build factories of all sizes (BAM factories) wherever needed. Each module is self-contained and can produce 10GWh of material per year. Any number of modules can also be combined together as needed to form a BAM factory of any size.

In terms of production capacity, Group14’s BAM-1 factory in Woodinville, Washington, USA currently supplies more than 65 customers. These customers account for 95% of the global battery production market, and are also developing in Asia, Europe and other regions. Deploy BAM factory. What is certain is that the output of the BAM-1 factory has exceeded 10GWh, which can meet the needs of approximately 100,000-200,000 electric vehicles.

If the production goes smoothly, the production capacity of the BAM-2 factory in Washington will be twice that of BAM-1, and it will become the world's largest advanced silicon anode battery technology factory in 2024.

Written at the end

People in the industry often ridicule: It’s not all about supply chain technology, what about self-research. Judging from the results, the silicon carbon negative electrode cells of these companies are all from ATL, and most likely they use SCC55 material, which seems to be the case.

But in fact, the communication between the supply chain and manufacturers is not one-way. The application of many materials and technologies is often the result of the joint efforts of both parties. By analogy, supply chain technology is like ingredients. The final product still depends on the chef's cooking techniques and seasoning.

Take the battery life discussed in this article as an example, the mass production application of silicon-carbon anode batteries is the key. The theoretical energy density of silicon-carbon anodes is much higher than that of traditional graphite anodes, which can greatly improve battery life. Group14’s SCC55 material is currently one of the most representative silicon-carbon anode materials, with excellent performance and mass production capabilities.

At the same time, various mobile phone manufacturers have also optimized the battery packaging process, power management, system scheduling, etc., and finally allowed consumers to get mobile phones with excellent battery life.

As for the question mentioned in the title of this article, everyone can have their own understanding.

The above is the detailed content of Is it supply chain technology or self-research? The secret behind the surge in battery life of domestic mobile phones. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!