The University of Montreal in Canada has just announced that it has developed an iron phosphate material to replace the expensive and volatile cobalt used in making electrodes for mobile phone Li-Ion batteries.
Commercial production is expected to begin in 2003, and Joseph Hubert, vice-dean of research, said that a team headed by Professor Michel Armand has been working on the product for five years.
It must still be demonstrated that the laboratory process can be scaled up to a commercial production, but if it can, it could lead to a substantial cost saving in Li-Ion batteries. Currently cobalt represents 5% of the cost of a Li-Ion battery, while iron phosphate would be just 0.5% of the cost.
