Thursday, 23 June 2016
Riverside Center (Hyatt Regency)
LiOH and Li2CO3 are impurities remaining in NCM (Ni, Co, Mn Oxide) cathode powder in its manufacturing. As the sources of battery swelling, they need to be removed to a very low level from the cathode material. The existing technique for removing these impurities is wet washing with such as water. N2 and NF3 mixed gas from a multi layered DBD (Dielectric Barrier Discharge) plasma can remove the LiOH and Li2CO3 in dry environment. We monitored the reaction product gas coming from the conversion reaction by QMS residual gas analyzer. The O2 and CO2 concentration was increased in the conversion reaction of LiOH and Li2CO3 respectively. The addition of little amount of H2 gas into the mixed gas increased the dissociation rate of the NF3 molecule. In that condition, the O2 concentration was decreased in LiOH conversion whereas the CO2 concentration was steeply increased in Li2CO3 conversion. This plasma process could remove up to 80% of impurities of LiOH and Li2CO3 from 622 NCM powder in just one minute.