- CATL has efficiently doubled the lifetime of LMB battery cell prototypes with an power density of 500 Wh/kg.
- The breakthrough got here via the usage of a brand new kind of lithium salt for the battery electrolyte.
- This brings into focus the significance and potential positive factors of higher electrolytes, which additionally advances solid-state batteries.
Battery manufacturing juggernaut CATL has introduced a breakthrough in lithium metallic batteries (LMB), combining elevated power density with a doubling of the usable lifespan noticed in earlier prototypes. LMBs maintain lots of promise for a variety of makes use of, however nonetheless have a protracted strategy to go earlier than you’ll see them in an electrical car.
This new leap is an enormous step in the correct path, in accordance with CATL, which calls this “a big step towards business viability for functions like electrical autos and electrical aviation.”
There’s nonetheless a protracted analysis and improvement cycle forward for LMBs, although, because it stays difficult to discover a steadiness between their power density and lifespan. Should you improve power density, the batteries put on out faster, whereas should you make them last more, their power density goes down.
CATL says that the newest prototype had a double lifespan of 483 cycles with an power density of 500 Wh/kg. For reference, that’s greater than what we count on to get out of solid-state batteries and round twice what present nickel manganese cobalt batteries present, which generally vary from 200 to 300 Wh/kg.
The important thing to the breakthrough was the usage of a distinct liquid electrolyte than what is usually used. CATL discovered that the primary motive LMB cells failed was linked to the electrolyte being consumed, by as a lot as 71% by the top of the cell’s life, which amassed within the cell as “lifeless lithium.” The corporate switched to a LiFSI lithium salt, whose greater conductivity and stability helped extend the higher-energy-density cell’s life.
In response to Ouyang Chuying, co-president of Analysis & Improvement at CATL, “We noticed a useful alternative to bridge the hole between educational analysis and its sensible software in business battery cells. Our findings underscore that LiFSI salt consumption and, importantly, general salt focus [are] a basic determinant of battery longevity.”
CATL’s findings recommend that the battery analysis trade ought to put extra emphasis on the sturdiness of the electrolyte. One other examine revealed in January 2025, drawing from analysis into medical functions of improved lithium-ion batteries, discovered {that a} high-concentration electrolyte is the important thing to prolonging the lifetime of lithium-metal batteries, which had been capable of obtain 3,000 charge-discharge cycles whereas sustaining 80% of their authentic capability.
This breakthrough demonstrates that the huge quantities of money and time poured into battery analysis (CATL alone invested round $2.59 billion into R&D in 2024) do ultimately result in important breakthroughs.
LMB and solid-state battery analysis are interconnected as they each share traits and may profit from the identical improvements, like CATL’s current electrolyte-related breakthrough, and each have the identical aim of attaining greater power density, cell security and an extended usable lifespan, leading to higher batteries for a variety of makes use of, particularly electrical autos.
