Natural graphite anode wave | Price of flake graphite

Natural graphite anode materials use flake graphite as raw material. Due to the anisotropy and small interlayer spacing of flake graphite, the cycle and rate performance are poor when directly used as negative electrode materials. Generally, a series of modification treatments such as spheroidization, purification, and coating carbonization are performed to improve diffusion of lithium ions in negative electrode materials.

Natural flake graphite has superior physical and chemical properties, and is widely used in metallurgy, electronics, light industry, military industry, national defense, aerospace and refractory industries, and is an important non-metallic raw material that is indispensable for today’s high-tech. Flake graphite is divided into large flake graphite and fine flake graphite according to the size of the flakes. Usually, large flakes refer to +50 mesh, +80 mesh, +100 mesh flake graphite, and flake graphite below these meshes is called fine flake graphite.

Cons and pros between flake graphite and artificial graphite

Graphite price is relevant to many factors, such as the content of fixed carbon and particle size and other costs.

1. Natural flake graphite anode performance: At present, domestic lithium battery negative electrodes are mainly made of artificial graphite, but the market share of natural graphite may increase in the future.
Compared with artificial graphite, natural graphite has good low-temperature performance, small DCR, good power performance, and good processability. The disadvantages are rate performance, cycle performance, and high-temperature performance. Both sides have their own advantages and they are irreplaceable.

Natural graphite can be combined with artificial graphite to learn from each other’s strengths or improve its performance to expand the market application range of natural graphite. For example, Betray aimed at the performance defects of traditional natural graphite such as low expansion and long cycle, and achieved a level comparable to artificial graphite through technical means such as modification, which has been widely recognized by the market. On the other hand, the pursuit of cost performance.

According to the development trend of the new energy lithium battery industry, the market has higher and higher requirements for the cost performance of power batteries. The development of low-cost, high-performance ratio natural graphite can just fill this gap and meet the application needs of more customers in low-end new energy vehicles and other markets.

3. Physical form: Natural graphite usually exists in the form of powder and can be used alone, but it is usually used in combination with other materials. There are many forms of artificial graphite, including powder, fibrous and block, and artificial graphite in the narrow sense is usually block, which needs to be processed into a certain shape when used.

4. Application field: Graphite has many excellent properties, so it is widely used in metallurgy, machinery, electrical, chemical, textile, national defense and other industrial sectors. The application fields of natural graphite and artificial graphite have both overlapping and different places. In the metallurgical industry, natural flake graphite can be used to produce refractory materials such as magnesia-carbon bricks and aluminum-carbon bricks because of its good oxidation resistance. Artificial graphite can be used as steelmaking electrodes, while electrodes made of natural graphite are difficult to use in harsher steelmaking electric furnaces. In the machinery industry, graphite materials are usually used as wear-resistant and lubricating materials. Natural flake graphite has good lubricity and is often used as an additive for lubricating oil.

2. Natural graphite anode with low energy consumption: From the background of “double carbon”, compared with artificial graphite, the low energy consumption of natural graphite is more in line with policy requirements. The country’s goal of peaking CO2 emissions in 2030 and offsetting carbon emissions by afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction before 2060 to achieve a balance between revenue and emission is unswerving. This means that in terms of reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, the intensity of policy control will become increasingly strict. Only projects with low energy consumption can pass the EIA to ensure stable production.

During the production and processing of artificial graphite, it involves a large ratio of electricity consumption and carbon emissions. Especially the graphitization process is often calculated by 10,000 kWh. Under the guidance of the national “double carbon” goal, there may be great constraints on the production of artificial graphite.

Correspondingly, natural graphite ore is naturally formed under special geological conditions such as high temperature and high pressure, and its structure is in the form of lamellar graphite crystal. When it is subsequently processed into natural graphite anodes, the high-temperature graphitization process is generally not involved, and the intensity of energy consumption and carbon emissions is much lower, which is more in line with the development orientation of national policies.

The performance of natural graphite anode materials determines its application in various scenarios, and also largely affects the future industrial structure of graphite anode materials. Therefore, how to develop an anode material that has certain advantages such as specific capacity, rate, life, and cost in a targeted manner without weakening other properties, so as to help the development of the new energy industry, has become one of the important issues facing the anode material industry. The flake graphite provided by franli‘s factory has a good price and high quality. It is exported all over the world and has been widely praised.