Could Potassium Titanate Spark A Battery Revolution?

The development of battery technology has been a growing priority for researchers in recent years as the world has moved towards electric vehicles and the growing deployment of often rare minerals to produce the battery power needed for the most modern devices.

Now, potassium titanate could be in growing demand after it was pinpointed as an ideal material.

A study by scientists at Dongguk University in South Korea, published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, assessed the kinds of materials that could make a success of the battery revolution, with a key focus on finding alternatives to lithium, which is currently the material of choice but is scarce.

Sodium-ion has been suggested by some as a good alternative, but the lead author of the study Eunho Lim noted that potassium has greater potential, as potassium-ion batteries would have much more energy storage capacity.

“Potassium-ion batteries are emerging as a viable alternative due to the abundance and cost-effectiveness of potassium,” he said, but added: “Realising their potential requires the development of advanced anode materials tailored to the unique properties of potassium ions.

This suggests that the potential for potassium is huge, which, if combined with its abundance, would solve a lot of battery problems. However, there is clearly much to be done to reach this point.

Because potassium is so abundant, its use would solve a lot of problems with lithium, not least the fact that China has a major economic and geopolitical advantage in possessing both a large proportion of lithium resources (either domestically or through ownership of overseas mines) and most of the processing capacity.

While other countries are making some progress on finding their own lithium sources (the UK is about to start domestic production) and establishing refineries, the widespread use of potassium as a substitute for lithium could be a game-changer.

The key is establishing anode materials that work with potassium and are not themselves so rare as to give those possessing them a huge resource advantage.