Antimony battery project progress analysis

Why is antimony important in sodium ion batteries?

You have full access to this open access article The development of sodium-ion (SIBs) and potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) has increased rapidly because of the abundant resources and cost-effectiveness of Na and K. Antimony (Sb) plays an important role in SIBs and PIBs because of its high theoretical capacity, proper working voltage, and low cost.

Can antimony be a future anode for potassium ion batteries?

Antimony has a high theoretical capacity and suitable alloying/dealloying potentials to make it a future anode for potassium-ion batteries (PIBs); however, substantial volumetric changes, severe pulverization, and active mass delamination from the Cu foil during potassiation/depotassiation need to be overcome.

Is there a market for antimony?

For global consumers of antimony, finding alternative suppliers will be challenging. Demand is high, and China is the world’s largest producer, holding nearly half of the global market share, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In contrast, the U.S. has not mined any marketable antimony since 1997.

Will antimony prices continue to rise?

Meanwhile, shares of Perpetua Resources, which operates a gold-antimony mine in Idaho—one of the rare U.S. sources of antimony deposits—have nearly tripled in the past six months, with a 50% gain in just the past month. Until global supply chains find alternatives to Chinese-controlled sources of antimony, prices are likely to continue rising.

How will China's antimony impact global supply chains?

Batteries, solar panels, and nuclear weapons all share a crucial material: antimony. As Beijing tightens its control over rare-earth materials—an apparent response to increasing trade restrictions and tariffs on Chinese-made goods—the global supply chains for critical materials like antimony are set to feel the impact.

What is the theoretical capacity of antimony selenides?

The theoretical capacity of sodium storage contributed by the resulting material of the above two-step reaction is 670 mA∙h/g (1 mol Sb 2 Se 3 -9 mol Na +) [7, 17, 18, 20]. Evidently, the theoretical capacity of antimony selenides is less than that of antimony sulfides and oxides and it is equivalent to that of metal Sb.