Lithium ion battery (LIB) has been used as energy storage devices for portable electronics since 1990 years. Recently, these are well noted as the power sources for the vehicles such as electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. Both layered type LiCoO2, LiNiO2 and spinel type LiMn2O4 is the most important cathode materials because of their high operating voltage at 4 V (Mizushima, et.al, 1980, Guyomard, et.al, 1994). So far, LiCoO2 has been mostly used as cathode material of commercial LIB. However, LiCoO2 and LiNiO2 have a problem related to capacity fading due to the instability in rechargeable process. Cobalt is also expensive and its resource is not sufficient. Therefore, LiCoO2 cathode material is not suitable as a LIB for EV and HEV. On the other hand, LiMn2O4 is regarded as a promising cathode material for large type LIB due to their advantages such as low cost, non-toxicity and thermally stability (Pegeng, et.al, 2006). It was also known that Ni-substitute type LiMn2O4 (LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4) was exhibited rechargeable behavior at about 5 V (Markovsky, et.al, 2004, Idemoto, et.al, 2004, Park, et.al, 2004). LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 has been considerably noticed as a cathode material with high power density which had an active potential at 5 V. The layered type LiCo1/3Ni1/3Mn1/3O2 was found to exhibit superior high potential cathode properties. This had rechargeable capacity with more than 150 mAh/g at higher rate and a milder thermal stability, but shows significantly capacity fading during the long rechargeable process. Recently, olivine type phosphate compound is noted as an alternative cathode material. LiFePO4 and LiMnPO4 were expected as next generation materials for large LIB because of low-cost, environmentally friendly, high thermally stability and electrochemical performance. On the other hand, the oxide type anode such as spinel type Li4Ti5O12 is expected as the candidate for the replacement of carbon anodes because of better safety. LIB which is consisted of LiFePO4 cathode and Li4Ti5O12 anode offers to high safety and long life cycle. Therefore, it is expected as the application of HEV or power supply for load levelling in wind power generation and solar power generation. So far, we have been developed spray pyrolysis technique as a aerosol process to prepare LiFePO4 and Li4Ti5O12 powders for LIB. In this chapter, the powder processing and electrochemical properties of LiFePO4 cathode and Li4Ti5O12 anode materials by spray pyrolysis were described. Spray pyrolysis is a versatile process regarding the powder synthesis of inorganic and metal materials (Messing, et.al, 1993, Dubois, et.al, 1989, Pluym, et.al, 1993). An atomizer such as ultrasonic (Ishizawa, et.al, 1985) or two-fluid nozzle (Roy, et.al, 1977) is often used to generate the mist. The mist is droplet in which the inorganic salts or metal organic compound is dissolved in water or organic solvent. The droplets were dried and pyrolyzed to form oxide or metal powders at elevated tem...

Rescue members evacuate some residents in Weihui city, Central China's Henan province, on July 27, 2021. About 13.3 million people in 150 county-level areas were affected. More than 1 million hectares of crops were affected, with about 148,000 hectares wiped out. More than 15,000 houses collapsed due to the flood. Although natural disasters are ruthless, there is love in the world,Most people, organizations,overseas Chinese from all over the society have provided assistance to people in need. Superpack also donated 100,000 to Henan Charity Federation after severe storms and resulting flooding affected.

The latest trend in battery materials processing is using biomineralization process in order to build controlled nanoarchitectured compounds under ambient conditions [Ryu, J. et al. (2010)]. Biomimetic chemistry involves the utilization of actual biomolecular entities such as proteins, bacteria and viruses to act either as a growth medium or as a spatially constrained nanoscale reactor for the generation of nanoparticles. Biosystems have the inherent capabilities of molecular recognition and self-assembly, and thus are an attractive template for constructing and organizing the nanostructure. Ryu et al. synthesized nanostructured transition metal phosphate via biomimetic mineralization of peptide nanofibers (figure 11). Peptides self-assembled into nanofibers displaying numerous acidic and polar moieties on their surface and readily mineralized with transition metal phosphate by sequential treatment with aqueous solutions containing transition metal cations and phosphate anions. FePO4-mineralized peptide nanofibers were thermally treated at 350º C to fabricate FePO4 nanotubes with inner walls coated with a thin layer of conductive carbon by carbonization of the peptide core. As formed carbon coated FePO4 nanotubes showed high reversible capacity (150 mAh·g-1 at C/17) and good capacity retention during cycling. Schematic of FePO4 nanotubes synthesis by heat treatment of peptide/FePO4 hybrid nanofibers; and b) transmission micrograph of tubular structures. [Reproduced from Ryu et al. (2010)]. Bacillus pasteurii bacterium has been extensively used to provoke calcite precipitation and it can generate a basic medium from urea hydrolysis that helps growing of LiFePO4 nanofilaments at 65º C. Beer yeast has also been reported as a biomimetic template that has been used to prepare LiFePO4 with enhanced surface area and conductivity [Li, P. et al. (2009)]. Engineered viruses have also been reported as templates to synthesize various electrode materials [Mao, Y. et al. (2007)], such as gold-cobalt oxide nanowires that consisted on 2-3 nm diameter nanocrystals prepared with modified bacteria M13 virus, with enhanced capacity retention [Tam, K.T. et al. (2006)]. Tobacco mosaic virus has also been used as a template for the synthesis of nickel and cobalt surfaces. This virus was genetically engineered to express a novel coat protein cysteine residue, and to vertically pattern virus particles into gold surfaces via gold-thiol interactions. Gold-supported vertically aligned virion particles served as vertical templates for reductive deposition of Ni and Co at room temperature via electroless deposition, and thus produced high surface area electrodes [Royston, E. et al. (2008)].

New synthetic methods derived from solvothermal approach, such as ionothermal processes have been used to obtain nanopowders of LiMPO4 (M= Mn, Co and Ni), LixMSiO4 [Nytén, A. et al. (2005)] and Li and Na fluorophosphates battery materials [DiSalvo, F.J. et al. (1971); Ellis, B.L. et al. (2007b)] using low heating temperature. Ionothermal synthesis has emerged when a great amount of research work is aimed at new low-cost processes to make highly electrochemically optimized electrode materials. This alternative route is considered as a new low cost synthesis process because it demands much less energy than high temperature ceramic routes. In spite of the higher cost of ionic liquids compared to water, it has been proved that these solvents can be reused without purification when used to prepare the same material, what leads to a significant cost decrease and minimizes waste production [Tarascon, J-M. et al. (2010)]. Ionothermal synthesis has also been carried out successfully by using microwave rather than traditional heating, which reduces reaction time and required energy for the synthesis. Ionothermal synthesis is based on the use of an ionic liquid as reacting medium instead of water in solvothermal conditions. Ionic liquids are a class of organic solvents with high polarity and a preorganized solvent structure [Del Popolo, M. G. and Voth, G. A. (2004)]. Room temperature (or near-room-temperature) ionic liquids are classically defined as liquids at ambient temperatures (or <100 °C) that are made of organic cations and anions. They have excellent solvating properties, little measurable vapor pressure, and high thermal stability. Solvating properties and fusion temperatures will depend on the combination of cations and anions chosen. In the area of materials science, there have been several reports of ionic liquids being used as solvents with very little or controlled amounts of water involved in the synthesis [Antonietti, M et al. (2004)]. Most of these studies concentrated on amorphous materials and nanomaterials. Like water, ionic liquids resulting from compatible cationic/anionic pairs have excellent solvent properties. In addition, they possess high thermal stability and negligible volatility so the use of autoclave is not mandatory. Moreover, because of the flexible nature of the cationic/anionic pairs, they present, as solvents, great opportunities to purposely direct nucleation. Over the past decade, ionothermal synthesis has developed into an advantageous synthetic technique for the preparation of zeotypes [Lin, Z-J. et al. (2008)] and other porous materials such as metal organic framework compounds (MOFs), but there has been very limited use made of this technique in the synthesis of inorganic compounds. The unique feature of ionothermal synthesis is that the ionic liquid acts as both the solvent ...

On 18 July 2021, we are celebrating our 3 year anniversary and are looking back with pride to a company history full of success. Thanks to our employees, we were able to grow into the company we are today. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank all of our employees, as well as our long-term customers and partners for their commitment and the valuable and trusting cooperation. Suepack CEO Mr Li offered the following comment in commemoration of Superpack's 3th anniversary: " I have great appreciation for our customers, business partners, community members, and various other stakeholders who have supported Superpack throughout its long history. Superpack has continued to overcome countless challenges, even in the face of uncertainty and turmoil, as it has proceeded to gain experience, learn, and grow into a stronger company. In the fierce market competition environment, we still face many challenges.We will continue to place sustainability at the core of our management as we advance past our 3th anniversary and seek to grow into a sustainable company together with society and customers."