LANXESS Opens Battery Materials Lab at Pigment Site
LANXESS has opened a new battery laboratory at its Krefeld-Uerdingen, Germany, site to accelerate development and testing of materials for lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries.
The laboratory allows LANXESS to evaluate iron oxide and iron phosphate materials directly in battery cells. The company said this will help it and its customers assess more quickly how different grades affect cell performance, processability and suitability for specific applications.
LANXESS has developed specialized iron oxide grades for use as raw materials in LFP cathode production and said those battery grades are already commercially available. The company has also developed an iron phosphate precursor using iron and phosphoric acid.
The laboratory can also test materials for other battery chemistries, including sodium-ion batteries using sodium iron pyrophosphate as a cathode material.
Krefeld-Uerdingen is also a major LANXESS iron oxide pigment production site. The company has produced iron oxides there for 100 years and has approximately 300,000 metric tons of annual pigment capacity. Its Bayferrox iron oxide pigments are used in applications including paints and coatings, plastics, paving stones and roof tiles.
The new laboratory itself is focused on batteries, not coatings. Its relevance to PCI comes from LANXESS’ broader iron oxide business: the company is a major pigment supplier to coatings and is expanding the application base for iron oxide chemistry produced and developed at the same Krefeld-Uerdingen site.
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