UNS — Three students from the Chemical Engineering Study Program, Faculty of Engineering (FT) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, create innovation in developing LMR-NMS cathode material. The three students are Affiano Akbar Nur Pratama, Ahmad Jihad, and Salsabila Ainun Nisa. Together, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Eng. Agus Purwanto, S.T., M.T., the team develop innovation in utilizing manganese sulfate fertilizer as the raw material for LMR-NMC cathode in Li-ion battery. The team leader, Affiano Akbar Nur Pratama, states that energy is one of the vital needs in human life. In line with population growth, the demand for energy increases.
Implementation of energy in the electric vehicles, electrical appliances, and industry need an energy storage device, one of them known as Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery.” Li-ion battery has four main components, namely, anode, cathode, separator, and electrolyte. The cathode as the main component in Li-ion battery is interesting to get developed, as it can affect the quality and performance of Li-ion battery. Lately, a type of Lithium Nickel Mangan Cobalt (LNMC) cathode, which rich of lithium and manganese (LMR-NMC) content, gaining more interest due to its ability to deliver a product with high power and specific capacity,” Affiano explains, Thursday (26/11/2020).
However, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, much laboratory-based research was limited. This affects the system implemented in the Student Creativity Program (PKM) 2020, thus shifting research-based activity to narrative review articles based on literature review and secondary data.” Even though there are many challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we give our best in preparing the narrative review to support the development of lithium-ion batteries in Indonesia,” Affiano reveals.
The structure, synthesis method, and sintering temperature in LMR-NMC cathode production can significantly affect Li-ion battery performance. Moreover, manganese sulfate fertilizer can serve as the material for LMR-NMC production to lower the production cost.
This innovation can open the opportunity for Indonesia to produce Li-ion batter regionally. The global demand for Li-ion batteries in 2016 reached 180,000 tonnes and is predicted to keep increasing to 400,000 tonnes in sales in 2025.
“Besides that, research on manganese sulfate fertilizer as cathode production material has never been conducted before. Thus we hope that this narrative review can be a basis for future research in examining the Li-ion battery cathode material variations,” Affiano concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Dwi Hastuti
