LITMIR.BIZ

      First published 2020 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

      ISTE Ltd

      27-37 St George’s Road

      London SW19 4EU

      UK

       www.iste.co.uk

      John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      111 River Street

      Hoboken, NJ 07030

      USA

       www.wiley.com

      © ISTE Ltd 2020

      The rights of Laure Monconduit and Laurence Croguennec to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2020938693

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

      ISBN 978-1-78945-013-2

      ERC code:

      PE4 Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences

       PE4_8 Electrochemistry, electrodialysis, microfluidics, sensors

Introduction

      Laure MONCONDUIT^1,3,4 and Laurence CROGUENNEC^2,3,4

      ¹Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, University of Montpellier, CNRS, Montpellier, France

      ² CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux INP, ICMCB UMR 5026, Pessac, France

      ³ RS2E, Réseau Français sur le Stockage Electrochimique de l’Energie, FR CNRS 3459, Amiens, France

      ⁴ ALISTORE-ERI European Research Institute, FR CNRS 3104, Amiens, France

I.1. Why Na-ion batteries?

      Climate changes and constraints of fossil resources result in the exploration of green and sustainable resources from renewable energy resources (solar, wind, hydro, tidal and geothermal energies), and their storage has become a critical issue in recent years. The development of large-scale energy storage systems has push the research on Li-ion batteries (LIBs), recognized as the electrochemical energy storage system showing the higher energy density since their first commercialization in 1991. Today, LIBs still dominate the market as the high-energy and power source for portable electronic devices. The limited abundance (Figure I.1) and especially the uneven distribution of lithium, added to the emerging huge demand for electrical energy storage, could increase the cost and sustainability of lithium. Almost 25% of Li reserves are expected to be depleted by electric vehicle (EV) applications by 2050 (Vikström et al. 2013). Moreover, the lithium supply is concentrated in a few areas, mainly in South America and Australia. Only a few companies dominate the lithium market such as Albemarle (ALB US), Rockwood Lithium, SQM (SQM US), FMC (FMC US) and Chengdu Tianqi (China). As a result, the price of Li₂CO₃ is continuously growing and is foreseen to dramatically rise with that of the EV

market. Li recycling could support the supply of Li with a recycling rate of 50–100% in 2050. Since 2006, Umicore is providing recycling services for lithium-ion (Li-ion) and nickel metal hydride batteries (NiMH) from all possible applications. They are now able to recycle lithium from LIB waste through both pyrometallurgical as hydrometallurgical flowsheets. Among other actions, Eramet, Suez and BASF have formed an alliance, which is supported by Europe for an innovative research program to recycle the LIBs of used electric vehicles, and recycle the active materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt in a form that is sufficiently pure to be reusable in a new battery (https://www.basf.com/fr/fr/media/Communiques-de-presse-France).

      This situation increased the necessity to explore alternative battery chemistries. Na is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust (≈2.6%), and unlimited Na resources are available from sea water (Figure I.1).