Researchers Announce Potassium Battery Breakthrough
The development of renewable energy and electric vehicles has necessitated advancements way beyond the levels of battery technology people have been able to rely on up until now, whether it is the lithium batteries used in electric vehicles, or new developments that enhance the capacity of materials previously thought to have limited benefits.
In the latter case, this has often involved innovations to take familiar materials and break down barriers to greater storage capacity, something a battery technology firm has now claimed with potassium.
Group1 announced its new development at the Beyond Lithium conference in Austin, Texas, with the world’s first potassium-ion battery taking the cylindrical 18650 form factor.
While the 18650 form factor is the most widely used cell factor, what is new is the way the firm has managed to create Kristonite, a 4v cathode material developed from Prussian white potassium by Group1, which offers high energy storage without having to incorporate some rare or highly toxic minerals associated with lithium, like cobalt and nickel.
The firm states that it is a better option than either lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries, which if proven will mean increased demand for refined potassium titanates.
“This innovation represents years of dedicated research and product development. By distributing samples to our partners among Tier 1 OEMs and cell manufacturers,“ said Group1 CEO Alexander Girau, adding that the firm is “paving the way for widespread adoption of this transformative technology”.
Potassium certainly isn’t the only material to be the subject of a new technology breakthrough announcement in recent years; in 2022, researchers in Finland said they had found a way to create a fully-effective sand battery for the first time, which could store heat for months on end.
However, as that was a 100-tonne device, it may be beneficial for heating homes and offices, but not for cars or mobile devices. Therefore, the potassium innovation could yet provide the most significant and viable alternative to lithium to emerge for many years.
How Does Potassium Titanate Save Lives Every Single Day?
Titanates, even by the standard of other industrial materials, are fascinating for the unique properties they have and what they are capable of facilitating. However, potassium titanate somehow manages to take this a step further.
Whilst strontium titanate is a beautiful diamond substitute invented before it was naturally discovered and barium titanate became a common material in crystal microphones, potassium titanate helps to save lives in one of the most dangerous environments we experience every day.
Unless you live in a rural area, everyone from drivers and passengers to pedestrians interact with roads, and given how quickly cars travel along them, it is not surprising that they can be one of the most dangerous environments people interact with on a regular basis.
One of the most important tools to help reduce this danger is the brake pad, a pair of pads made from a material designed to generate friction when pressed against a spinning brake disk, which helps to slow down and stop a vehicle.
The brake pad is used every single time someone drives a vehicle, often on multiple occasions, to the point that many people do not appreciate just how important it is.
There are a lot of different materials that can be used to make brake pads, but one potential technology that has seen increased interest is granular potassium titanate, which has promising frictional qualities and could potentially boost braking performance.
This is not entirely a new discovery, with the first patent for making brake pads using potassium titanate published in China in 2010.
The patent description highlights the huge advantage of using the material, as it absorbs heat energy and provides a high level of friction, both qualities essential in effective braking.
Brakes that are too hot are less effective, and less friction means less braking force, so a titanate is helping in a very real way to save lives.
The Real Importance Of Refining Potassium Titanate
Potassium Titanate is a material that plays a vital role in various processes such as multilayer ceramic capacitors in electronic devices, electrode welding and brake pads, where its heat resistance can prove invaluable.
However, for all this to happen first requires the refining of the substance and its milling to reduce it to optimum particle sizes. This is prefaced by the creation of the titanate by bringing together potassium carbonate with titanium dioxide in a high-temperature environment to generate a reaction.
This is a significant process because it draws the distinction between potassium in its common forms and the useful form that the titanate represents.
Potassium in its natural form is an element (symbol K) and a silvery-coloured metal that becomes white and flaky upon oxygen exposure.
While mildly radioactive and toxic and in larger quantities, it is vital for life in smaller amounts. As an electrolyte that produces positive ions when dissolved in water, it helps with processes such as the maintenance of fluid balance and the efficient function of nerves and muscles as it helps transmit electrical signals within the body.
This is something naturally acquired through food consumption, particularly certain vegetables like bananas, avocados and spinach, as well as fish such as salmon. A good level of consumption has health benefits like protecting against strokes and osteoporosis, but too much can be harmful, especially to the gut.
However, it is the electrical conductive capacity of potassium that makes it useful in other ways when it appears in different forms. That is why it needs to be made into titanate and then ground down to fulfil its use in electronic and thermal devices.
Potassium titanate is, therefore, a prime example of where a common substance needs to be modified, synthesised and then refined to create a particular form that makes it useful in a range of applications.
Why Was Strontium Titanate Invented Before It Was Discovered
An important component in precision optics and ceramics, strontium titanate is a particularly versatile material used in a wide range of manufacturing processes.
One of strontium titanate’s most common uses was as a synthetic diamond under the name Fabulite, both for its particularly vivid prismatic fire and for its precision qualities for use in diamond coating and laser focusing.
It also has an exceptionally unusual quality for crystal minerals of its type, in that it was invented, patented and synthesised in a laboratory decades before it was discovered to be a real mineral.
The process of growing strontium titanate was first patented in 1953 and further perfected over the next four years as it became the most well-used synthetic diamond on the market until it was superseded by yttrium aluminium garnet, gadolinium gallium garnet and finally cubic zirconia.
Despite this, it is still used for many purposes to this day, and it was not until five years after the latter was mass-produced that strontium titanate was discovered as a naturally occurring mineral.
In the Aldan Shield, part of Eastern Siberia in Russia (then part of the Soviet Union) a naturally occurring form of strontium titanate was discovered and subsequently named tausonite after Lev Vladimirovich Tauson.
Whilst Mr Tauson was largely unrelated to either the synthesis of strontium titanate in the 1950s or the discovery of its natural version in the 1980s, he was a leading figure in geochemistry, particularly in what was then the USSR.
Mr Tauson was the head of the Siberian Division of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, particularly focused on geochemistry as it pertains to rare materials.
Interestingly, Mr Tauson was more focused on magma ore, abyssal fractures and igneous rocks, of which the mineral that bears his name is none of the above.
However, his general work in bringing forward Irkutsk and Siberia as major hubs of Russian geochemistry made him a candidate to have a mineral named after him, and one first discovered in the region before being found in Paraguay and Japan is appropriate.
How Strontium Titanate Shines Quite Unlike A Diamond
Strontium Titanate is not a material that most people know much about nowadays, but after the synthetic process that first produced it was first established in the 1940s, it enjoyed a brief – and literally sparkling – bit of fame.
The material has long been valued as a high-permittivity perovskite, with semiconductor and ferroelectric properties. But it gained some considerable attention in the 1950s and 60s when it was found it could be cut and shaped to resemble a diamond.
Not only was it clear and colourless like a diamond, but its capacity to reflect light across the spectrum and produce a wide range of colours, known as ‘fire’, exceeded that of a diamond. Several jewellery makers produced their own brands under names like Fabulite and Diagem.
This fame lasted up until the early 70s, but while the crystals were much cheaper than diamonds, by then the key flaw was evident as buyers saw increasing wear and tear. On the Mohs hardness scale, Strontium is only 5.5 compared with 10 for a diamond, with this relative softness being comparable to an opal, capable of being scratched with a sharp knife.
Strontium fell out of favour with jewellery wearers due to its softness as harder alternatives like Moissanite emerged, but it continues to make an impact in rather less obvious ways today, due to its conductivity. It has a role in high-voltage capacitors and voltage-dependent resistors.
Although it was initially produced synthetically as a combination of Strontium and Titanium, the material was discovered in naturally occurring form for the first time in 1982, with deposits in Siberia. Others have now been found around the world.
Companies using it today in electronic applications may consider it remarkable that today this is a material with very important uses, yet almost forgotten from the days when Strontium was the substitute of choice for diamonds.
Why Barium Titanate Production Is So Very Important
The importance of barium titanate is one of those esoteric matters that will pass most people by. Yet it is an important component in ceramics and also, because of its ferroelectric and piezoelectric qualities, the electronic industry, electrical insulation and even microphones.
While it may be that the man or woman in the street has never even heard of the material or know anything of its many uses in devices they engage with every day, the mineral processing sector will be very aware.
Thankfully, it is not a rare earth material, since it is produced synthetically by the synthesis of barium carbonate and titanium dioxide through liquid phase sintering, or in individual crystal form by the heating of molten potassium fluoride to 1,100 degrees C.
Nonetheless, given the wide array of uses of the material, every processing firm must have a good barium titanate supplier. That means they in turn must obtain a reliable supply of the base materials from which it can be produced.
Titanium dioxide is particularly plentiful and since its discovery a century ago it has found a wide array of uses. Most notably, while it is naturally white it both reflects and absorbs colour well and this makes it a vivid colourant, used in paints and plastics, as well as substances such as toothpaste, paper, cosmetics and sunscreen.
Given such a wide array of uses, it is just as well the substance is common, which can also be said of barium carbonate. It is itself a synthetic compound, produced from barium sulphate by boiling it with sodium carbonate.
For mineral processors, this is all well-known and what matters is that your company always has a good and reliable source of the materials you need, ensuring your diverse customer base, working across a wide array of different industries, is supplied with the materials they require.
How Is Barium Titanate Used To Make Microphones?
When people think of barium titanate, they are typically drawn to its capabilities as a ceramic for capacitors, due to its exceptional dielectric constant values.
Whilst this dielectric constant is the main reason why manufacturers come to specialist barium titanate suppliers time and again, there are other uses for the material as well, with one of the most unusual being its use in certain types of microphones.
There are a lot of different ways to make a microphone, from dynamic magnetic coil technologies to fibre optics, but one of the most popular types of microphone takes advantage of crystal piezoelectricity to convert vibrations into electrical signals, which are then interpreted as sound data.
The barium titanate or other ceramic material is a thin strip connected to a diaphragm, which acquires opposite piezoelectric charges when the diaphragm deflects them, and these electrical pulses can be fed to an output device or into a sound recorder.
Initially, the crystal of choice was potassium sodium tartrate, far better known as Rochelle salt, but the problem with this choice was that whilst it was very capable in terms of sensitivity it was also particularly vulnerable to moisture and would decompose at 55 degrees Celsius, which meant it needed more protection to survive for long stretches of time.
Barium titanate was far stronger and thus more capable than Rochelle salt in the long term, and for quite some time crystal microphones were a commonly included part of vacuum tube recording equipment due to their compatibility with vacuum tube inputs and relatively low cost.
Whilst they have since been supplanted by smaller condenser microphones and dynamic microphones, they do maintain a degree of popularity as contact microphones for acoustic instruments, as well as for recording sound in environments where other equipment simply cannot be used.
It serves to highlight that in the world of titanites, whilst there is a primary use a particular material is known for, there are also some fascinating alternative purposes.
What Are The Risks Of Being Exposed To Potassium Titanate?
Only industry experts should handle potassium titanate when it is being manufactured, as the highly useful fibre can pose some risks if not dealt with correctly.
The powerful compound is most commonly used in the automotive industry, as it can improve the strength of a friction material, as well as make it more heat and wear resistant.
Therefore, car manufacturers use potassium titanate to improve the quality of their brakes, providing more security for drivers who do not want their brakes to fail, particularly under high temperatures.
While it is extremely useful, it has to be handled carefully, as it can cause irritations if exposed to the skin. It is, therefore, essential that hands are thoroughly washed after handling the compound, as it could lead to dermatitis if not fully removed.
The itchiness, rash or swelling can be treated with emollients or topical corticosteroids, or a doctor may have to prescribe oral corticosteroids if the dermatitis is particularly bad.
If too much of the potassium titanate is inhaled by being around it for too long, this could also cause respiratory irritation. For this reason, it is important that people wear respiratory masks, especially when in confined areas, to avoid this.
It is also essential that eye protection is worn at the same time, as overexposure could cause irritation to the eyes. The inert particles can make eyes itch and become red, which is why it is also essential to wear protective gloves when handling this.
This reduces the chance of the particles making contact with eyes later in the end if hands are not thoroughly washed clean of the compound.
