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Nickel sulfate, a necessity for secondary batteries
2022-03-14Nickel sulfate, a necessity for secondary batteries
Nickel, the metal of the future that
has been with the development
of
human being.
Nickel closely related to life, main raw material for alloy
Nickel, the familiar metal, is the element symbol number 28. Nickel is mainly used to make stainless steel, and about 70% of the world’s nickel use is used to make stainless steel alloyed with iron and cadmium.
Although the use has decreased a lot these days, coins commonly used in our lives were made of cupro-nickel alloyed with copper due to the high price of nickel. As the industry developed, coins containing nickel began to be commercialized, and the representative nickel-using coin was a five-cent coin with the portrait of Thomas Jefferson, who served as the 3rd president of the United States, called nickel or nickel. The reason the five-cent coin became nickel is because it contains more nickel than other coins.
From weapons to peaceful purposes
Nickel was made of nickel steel in England and France and used to make military armor, and in 19th century Russia, nickel steel was carbonized and used to make stronger armor.
Recently, it has been used for peaceful purposes such as surgical instruments, chemical
equipment, and household items. Since nickel is a strong antioxidant, it is used to prevent
corrosion of household items by plating on dishes, pans and kettles.
Recently, nickel has been used as a major material for cathode materials for lithium batteries
used in batteries for mobile phones and lithium ion batteries for electric vehicle batteries.
Element number 28 Nickel, where did it come from?
Nickel is known in the modern era in 1751 when Swedish mineralogist and chemist Cronstedt developed nickel from a mineral called nicolite. Prior to that, nicolite ore was called ‘cooper nickel’, meaning devil’s copper in Germany. German mistook nicolite, similar to copper ore, for copper ore and tried to extract copper, but only harmful gases were produced and copper could not be extracted, so they thought that ‘nickel’ was like a demon and hindered with copper extraction.
At the center of the secondary battery industry, future metal nickel
As electric vehicle sales increase, the use of high-purity nickel is also
increasing. This is because nickel is the main material for cathode materials for batteries.
More specifically, ‘nickel sulfate’ is used as a core material for cathode materials, which are
the four major raw materials for lithium-ion batteries. Nickel sulfate is mainly made by adding
sulfuric acid to high-purity nickel. Nickel sulfate produced in this way can be directly put
into the cathode material process without additional processing, so the production step can be
shortened.
For reference, cathode materials are made by mixing lithium, a precursor that contains nickel,
cobalt, and manganese in an appropriate ratio.
Korea Zinc’s efforts for stable production and supply of sulfuric acid and nickel
Korea Zinc is expanding its business to EV battery materials based on the world’s best non-ferrous metal production technology. Korea Zinc has already produced 1.5 million tons of sulfuric acid per year by processing sulfurous acid gas from the non-ferrous metal production process.
Nickel Sulfate Production Capacity
Source: Kemco, MiraeAsset Daewoo Research Center
Korea Zinc promises to take another leap forward for environment-friendly and future-oriented value management through continuous facility improvement and technological development in order to stably produce higher quality nickel sulfate.