This is an example of where a little bit of information can be dangerous.
Solid State remains the holy grail for battery chemistry because of its high capacity and energy density,
Lithium is still the only element that is not replaceable in either the Lithium ion or Solid State form.
Lithium is the 3rd element on the periodic table. It is light weight and energy dense compared to other metals near it on the periodic table, meaning lithium can hold more charge per unit weight. It is also more malleable compared to its nearest rivals.
Where in your referenced atricle does it say Nissan's new battery will be lithium free?
There is only reference to Nissan removing rare earths from it's battery. Lithium is strictly not a rare earth element.
So what is known about Nissans new battery.- It will have a Cobalt Free Cathode - That's it!
It will almost certainly still have a Lithium Metal Anode and probably a sulfide compound for the solid electrolyte. It is experimenting with silicon anode material too, but not so fast.
Whislt silicon is able to hold 10 times as much energy in the anode, compared to graphite, the material itself swells when it's part of a battery. It swells so much that the anode flakes and cracks, causing the battery to lose its ability to hold a charge and ultimately to fail.
Nissan is grappling with this important new technology as a host of startups and virtually every old-school rival, from Toyota and Volkswagen to General Motors, race to find the right road to success.
A peek inside Nissan's laboratory shows just how long and arduous the road to solid state will be.
The 1,400-square-foot workshop is a walled-off dry room housed inside an old warehouse at Nissan's Oppama factory complex where engineers once worked on prototyping new catalysts.There, a group of 10 workers painstakingly mix an electrolyte slurry, scooping cathode powder from a plastic cup with a long spoon, by hand. They mix it into an inky black goop, which is spread like pancake mix onto thin aluminum sheets – only two cells at time. After drying, the sheets go through a stamping machine reminiscent of a telephone booth that compresses them with three times the pressure used for standard lithium ion cells.
Workers then cut the electrolyte sheets to an appropriate size and carefully stack them with anode sheets. Finally, they vacuum-seal four-layer sets of cells into aluminum foil pouches. The work is fastidious and time consuming. The bulk of the processes are done through plexiglass glove boxes to maintain ultralow humidity and cleanliness.
Right now, Nissan's laboratory churns out only about 50 of these four-layer pouches a month, says Kenzo Oshihara, deputy general manager for innovative battery production engineering.
Just one electric vehicle would need about 5,000 such pouches. It would take a very long time before we could make a battery for a car in this room. "The mass-production equipment will have to be more sophisticated.
Then there are the exacting standards of manufacturing these cells. For starters, the pancake mix slurry must be whipped so finely that it gets all the lumps out to maximize battery conductivity. The layers of cathode-electrolyte-anode need to be lined up absolutely precisely.
Another sobering thought.. Nissan doesn't want to bank on the advanced batteries being safe, or fire-proof. More power-dense than a conventional lithium-ion battery, there's a lot of energy stored inside, which could produce something akin to a "bomb" according to a quote by Kazuhiro Doi, corporate vice president in charge of advanced battery research.
The takeaway? Do your research.
These promising batteries present some sobering challenges before they'll power a new generation of Nissan EVs, and shed some light on the hurdles other automakers will have to overcome on the road to mass-producing them.
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