Aluminum foil is a foil made of aluminum, according to the difference in thickness, it can be divided into heavy gauge foil, medium gauge foil(.0XXX) and light gauge foil(.00XX). According to the usage scenarios, it can be divided into air conditioner foil, cigarette packaging foil, decorative foil, battery aluminum foil, etc.
Battery aluminum foil is one of the varieties of aluminum foil. Its output accounts for 1.7% of the total foil material, but the growth rate reaches 16.7%, which is the fastest growing subdivision of foil products.
The reason why the output of battery aluminum foil has such a rapid growth is that it is widely used in ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate battery, sodium-ion batteries, etc. According to relevant survey data, every GWh ternary battery needs 300-450 tons of battery aluminum foil, and every GWh lithium iron phosphate battery needs 400-600 tons of battery aluminum foil; and sodium-ion batteries use aluminum foil for both positive and negative electrodes, every Gwh sodium batteries needs 700-1000 tons of aluminum foil, which is more than twice that of lithium batteries.
At the same time, benefiting from the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry and the high demand in the energy storage market, the demand for battery foil in the power field is expected to reach 490,000 tons in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 43%. The battery in the energy storage field has a large demand for aluminum foil, taking 500 tons/GWh as the calculation benchmark, it is estimated that the annual demand for battery aluminum foil in the energy storage field will reach 157,000 tons in 2025.(Data from CBEA)
The battery aluminum foil industry is rushing on the high-quality track, and the requirements for current collectors on the application side are also developing in the direction of thinner, higher tensile strength, higher elongation and higher battery safety.
Traditional aluminum foil is heavy, costly, and poorly safe, which faces big problems. At present, a new type of composite aluminum foil material has begun to appear on the market, this material can effectively increase the energy density of batteries and improve the safety of batteries, and is highly sought after.
Composite aluminum foil is a new type of composite material made of Polyethylene terephthalate (pet) and other materials as the basic material, and depositing metal aluminum layers on the front and back sides by advanced vacuum coating technology.
This new type of composite material can greatly improve the safety of batteries. When the battery is thermally runaway, the organic insulating layer in the middle of the composite current collector can provide infinite resistance for the circuit system, and it is non-combustible, thereby reducing the possibility of battery combustion, fire and explosion, then improving the safety of the battery.
At the same time, because the PET material is lighter, the overall weight of the PET aluminum foil is smaller, which reduces the weight of the battery and improves the energy density of the battery. Taking composite aluminum foil as an example, when the overall thickness remains the same, it is nearly 60% lighter than the original traditional rolled aluminum foil. Moreover, the composite aluminum foil can be thinner, and the resulting lithium battery is smaller in volume, which can also effectively increase the volumetric energy density.
Edited by May Jiang from MAT Aluminum
Post time: Apr-13-2023
