Carbon nanotubes, will it be a new growth point for BDO?

GBL-NMP industry chain, as the third largest downstream of BDO(CAS 110 63 4), together with PBAT, is considered to be the two broadest growth points of 1 4-Butanediol future market, along with the rise of new energy vehicles, the future has a large market imagination. Usually when we talk about NMP application, we mostly refer to the application as NMP solvent in lithium-ion battery, but in fact, NMP can be used not only as solvent, and the application field is far more than lithium-ion battery.

The emerging and widely favored NMP(N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) downstream application that may even become a new growth point for BDO in the future - carbon nanotube conductive pastes.

What are carbon nanotubes?

Carbon nanotubes, which were discovered by Japanese scientists in 1991, are tubular nanoscale graphite crystals, which are single- or multi-layer graphene layers curled around a central axis at a certain helix angle to form a seamless nanoscale tubular structure, divided into single-walled carbon nanotubes and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Compared with other nanomaterials, carbon nanotubes have a more unique structure and excellent performance, and are called the "king of nanomaterials".

As a new material, carbon nanotubes have shown great potential in many fields, such as electronics, energy, communication, chemical, biology, medicine, aerospace, etc., because of their excellent electrical, mechanical and chemical properties since they were discovered. And carbon nanotubes have been included in the national strategic layout as new materials, with the acceleration of technological progress and commercial application, the industry has good development prospects.

What is carbon nanotube conductive agent ?

Conductive agent is a key auxiliary material for lithium batteries, coated with cathode and anode materials to increase the conductivity of electrons and lithium ions. Adding conductive agent to the electrode material of Li-ion battery can effectively improve the migration rate of electrons, thus enhancing the charging and discharging rate of the electrode and ensuring good charging and discharging performance of the battery.

The traditional conductive additives include carbon black (KB), acetylene black (AB) and graphite (KS), while the high-end conductive additives mainly include carbon nanofibers (VGCF), carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon fibers (GN).

Nowadays, there are three types of mainstream conductive agents: conductive carbon black, carbon nanotubes and graphene.

Conductive carbon black conductivity moderate, high purity, low cost, large market share; conductive graphite flake diameter and thick, not easy to form a conductive network, usually used in combination with conductive carbon black; in the high-end conductive agent, carbon nanotubes conductivity generally better than ordinary carbon black, low dosage but the price is higher, and dispersion difficulties.

Compared with traditional conductive agents, carbon nanotubes have better conductive properties.The amount of carbon nanotubes is only 1/6~1/2 of conventional conductive agents. In addition, carbon nanotubes can maintain good electron and ion conduction during the cycle of lithium batteries, thus significantly increasing the cycle life of lithium batteries. Carbon nanotubes are now gradually penetrating to replace traditional conductive agents such as carbon black.

Carbon nanotube conductive slurry is a kind of conductive slurry with NMP as the solvent to dissolve carbon nanotubes, 95% of its components are solvent NMP, so it can also be regarded as one of the BDO downstream applications, which is expected to become a new growth point of BDO industry in the future with the rapid development of new energy vehicles.

Carbon Nanotube Market Prospects

Considering the rise of the country for the new energy industry and the momentum of the rapid growth of lithium-ion batteries, we still believe that lithium batteries will be the largest growth point of carbon nanotubes in the future.

In 2022, the world lithium battery market was driven by the demand for new energy vehicle power batteries, with shipments reaching 200 GWh, up 14.7% year-on-year. Among them, 120GWh of power lithium battery shipments, up 9.2% year-on-year. 2022 carbon nanotube powder conductive agent for lithium batteries (including its composite conductive agent) production volume of 2,122 tons, up 10.2% year-on-year, equivalent to carbon nanotube conductive slurry of about 51,800 tons (converted to 4% solid content).

Statistics show that lithium battery production will be 243GWh in 2022, up 22% year-on-year, and lithium battery market capacity is expected to reach 817GWh in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of over 25% from 2022-2027.

According to the study, the proportion of carbon nanotubes in China's power battery conductive agents will be 27% in 2022 and is expected to reach 61% in 2027. In the future, carbon nanotubes are expected to further replace carbon black and become the mainstream conductive agent in the field of power lithium batteries.