In 1980, John Goodenough of Oxford University invented the first lithium-ion rechargeable battery that required cobalt. Experiments showed that cobalt has a high energy density and is particularly suitable for small batteries that require large amounts of energy. Goodenough refined it by heating parts of the lead cobalt.

Today, most commercialButton lithium batteryBoth use cobalt, but it’s expensive. To that end, it creates a chain of black interests: human rights abuses, including child labor in mining, are long-standing in the Republic of Congo. Electronics and electric car companies have been reluctant to contend with the high cost of manufacturing, as well. Unwilling to participate in local human rights abuses, they are using less and less cobalt in their batteries. Tesla's battery supplier, Panasonic, announced late last month that it was developing batteries that don't require cobalt. Like Research institutions like Goodenough, which developed cobalt-free batteries, are also helping Panasonic.

Batteries have a positive electrode (usually graphite) and a negative electrode (a mixture of lithium, cobalt and oxygen). In electric cars, the negative electrode of the battery pack often contains more nickel than in electronics, thus reducing the use of cobalt, but its processing Costs more, and is more likely to cause fires on airplanes, like the 3-star Note 7. In contrast, cobalt has paired electrons in its outer orbit, which means it is small, dense, and easy to form Formative layer.

But a new generation of battery researchers, including Goodenough, is turning to materials like manganese and iron. Instead of layered structures, these elements form a "rock salt" structure. Anodes containing rock salt are already used in some devices, but the structure of rock salt It does not have the high energy density of cobalt or nickel.

Researchers and companies have prepared alternatives. "Because cobalt is expensive, companies try not to use it in battery manufacturing," said Goodenough, an engineering professor at the University of Texas. Cobalt's price is at It has quadrupled in the past 2 years. Most cobalt on the market is currently used in portable electronic devices. In the future, the demand for cobalt in battery packs for electric vehicles will be nearly 1,000 times that of mobile phones. As the global climate warms, the demand for cobalt is increasing. The more people replace internal combustion engines with electric cars. That's good for the planet, but it does push up the price of cobalt.

Cobalt is a byproduct of the production of other metals such as nickel and copper, but it also exists in its own form in the earth's crust, primarily in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2016, the Washington Post shed light on previously opaque cobalt The supply chain was investigated and child labor and a lack of necessary mining equipment were found.

Of course, there are other ways to avoid hazardous mining situations: recycling cobalt. But Elsa Olivetti, an energy researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said that because of the long life of lithium-ion batteries, electronics Demand for the product continues to grow, and the number of people buying lithium-ion batteries will increase significantly over the next decade. Last October, she published an article concluding that cobalt supply will grow rapidly to meet demand in the coming years, especially as electric vehicles The Rise of the Automobile. She wrote that despite progress in the past eight months in the development of new cathode materials and open-source cobalt, "cobalt electrodes still exist and are valuable for research. But cobalt use has gradually declined," he said , use stable, high-energy metals such as phosphorus and iron to make cathodes.

Goodenough, now 96, is still thinking about cobalt. Although he has developed a battery that does not require cobalt, he believes that cobalt lithium batteries will never disappear. Despite higher production costs, there are still many lithium batteries he designed in his early years. Great application potential.