Iron or Ion ???? Lithium batteries explained...
Are you also confused? Is it Lithium Ion or Lithium Iron? And what is LiFePO4?
A lithium-ion battery (or Li-Ion) is rechargeable kind of battery with a variety of cathodes, for example, a Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Dioxide (LiNiMnCoO2) cathode for NMC batteries or a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) as a cathode for LiFePO4 (LFP) batteries.
LiFePO4 and NMC batteries are currently the most common lithium battery types installed in residential solar installations in the country.
A lithium-iron battery is also a rechargeable type of battery but made with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) as the cathode material; the “Li” is for Lithium, the “Fe” is for Iron, and “PO4” stands for phosphate (which might sound familiar if you paid attention during chemistry class ;-)).
You could say that Lithium-iron is a member of the lithium-ion battery family; A Lithium iron battery is a lithium-ion battery as well, but not every lithium-ion battery is a Lithium Iron battery.
Characteristics of LiFePO4
Most other Li-ion batteries have in general a higher energy density than LiFePO4 batteries, meaning that most Li-Ion batteries are lighter for the same capacity, but LiFePO4 is slowly closing the gap, for example, Tesla is now using LiFePO4 as well.
LiFePO4 has an edge over the Li-ion battery in chemical and thermal stability and is, therefore, safer than the other Li-ion batteries like NMC batteries. LiFePO4 batteries do not have the “thermal runaway” that can happen in other batteries, the spontaneous fire that occurred in a particular brand of phones.
In terms of durability, LiFePO4 is more durable than the other Li-ion batteries, e.g., NMC, as the LiFePO4 charge/discharge cycles are higher. Other Li-ion batteries have a maximum of 1,000 cycles, while LiFePO4 can be discharged for at least 4,000 cycles with many more if managed carefully.
Another plus for the LiFePO4 battery is that it doesn’t use Cobalt, an element that has been in the news recently, as child labour is being used to mine Cobalt.
Have a look at SunStore's Lithium Iron Phosphate LiFePO4 Batteries.
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Iron or Ion ???? Lithium batteries explained...