Ball mills for new materials: lithium batteries, rare earths, catalysis, photovoltaics, and environmental protection

Since its invention over a century ago, the ball mill has been widely used in various industries. These include chemical, mining, building materials, power, pharmaceuticals, and defense. Ball milling is especially valuable in processing complex minerals. Researchers also use it for powder surface modification and activation. The method supports functional powder synthesis and mechanical alloying. It plays a key role in the preparation of ultrafine powders. Mechanical ball milling has broad research and application potential in these fields. Now the ball mills have entered the new materials for lithium battery, rare earth, catalysis, photovoltaic and environmental protection fields with its simple structure, continuous operation and strong adaptability.

Advantages and disadvantages of ball mill

The ball mill has a simple structure and operates continuously. It is highly adaptable and performs stably which is suitable for large-scale use and easy to automate. The crushing ratio ranges is from 3 to 100 µm. It can process various mineral raw materials. Users can apply both wet and dry grinding methods.

It is known that ball mills have high energy consumption. The energy conversion efficiency into powder surface area is low. The system wastes most of the energy instead of using it to reduce particle size. Moreover, the production capacity of the ball mills impacts the overall process efficiency. Therefore, optimizing the grinding process is essential. Reducing energy consumption and improving efficiency is necessary. This will enhance raw material grinding and increase final product yield.

Research progress of mechanical ball milling in the field of new materials

Lithium battery materials

Using ball mills for new materials -lithium batteries, the precursor nickel-cobalt-manganese composite hydroxide Ni0.5Co0.2Mn0.39(OH)2 was evenly mixed with lithium carbonate. The mixture was then high-temperature calcined to synthesize irregularly shaped LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2. Characterization showed that the material has a NaFeO2 structure and a pH value of 11.18. The first cycle discharge capacity was 167.5 mAh/g (at a current density of 30 mA/g, 2.5-4.3V). The Coulombic efficiency was 88.9%. These results suggest that LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 synthesized by ball milling has a low pH and high discharge capacity.

SiOx material was synthesized by mechanical ball milling in an air atmosphere. Researchers used it as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The volumetric capacity of SiOx reaches 1487 mAh/cc, more than twice that of graphite. Its first Coulombic efficiency is higher than untreated SiO, reaching up to 66.8%. Moreover SiOx shows excellent cycling stability. At 200 mA/g current density, the capacity remains stable at around 1300 mAh/g after 50 cycles. Therefore these results suggest the practical potential of SiOx prepared by this method.

The high-energy mechanical ball milling composite of biomass artificial graphite and silicon can effectively improve the microstructure and electrochemical performance of silicon anode materials. The composite electrode retains a discharge capacity of 995 mAh/g after 100 cycles at 1 A/g discharge current, showing good rate performance.

Rare earth materials

In rare earth polishing powder, mechanical ball milling increases shear force during chemical reactions. This accelerates particle diffusion, refining reactants and products. It avoids solvent introduction, reducing the precipitation process. This decreases the impact of preparation conditions, greatly expanding the research scope of polishing materials. For rare earth catalytic materials, mechanical ball mills has a simple process and mild conditions.
It allows large-scale material processing and, at the same time, avoids large solvent use, thereby preventing toxic pollutants. Furthermore, in high-performance rare earth permanent magnets, mechanical ball milling lowers synthesis temperature and improves theoretical density. As a result, this shows great potential for application and breakthroughs in high-end technology fields.

Additionally, ball mills is applied in the preparation of rare earth hydrogen storage materials and rare earth luminescent materials.
In conclusion, mechanical ball milling is widely favored in the preparation of rare earth materials. It offers high efficiency, simple processes, short production cycles, and easy industrialization.

Catalytic materials

To alter the particle size of TiO2 and improve its photocatalytic performance, Researchers used high-energy ball mills on TiO2 powder.
They studied the impact of milling time on the samples’ morphology, crystal structure, Raman spectra, fluorescence spectra, and photocatalytic performance. As a result the degradation rate of the ball-milled TiO2 samples was higher than that of un-milled samples. Notably the sample milled for 4 hours showed the highest degradation rate, indicating the best photocatalytic performance.

Photovoltaic materials

A chemical reduction-mechanical ball milling method was used to prepare bright flake silver powder. The study examined the effects of milling method, milling time, and milling speed on the powder’s properties. The results show that wet ball milling has higher flake formation efficiency.
However, the flake silver powder prepared by dry ball milling has larger flake size and a brighter silver appearance.

Perovskite materials

Lead-free double perovskite Cs2AgBiBr6 nanopowders were prepared by mechanical ball milling. As the ball milling time increased, the Cs2AgBiBr6 nanopowders finally reached a pure phase, the particle size gradually decreased to about 100nm, and the particle shape changed from rod-like to round particles.

Adsorption material

Ball mills activated non-metallic minerals such as limestone, kaolin, and serpentine, enhancing their reactivity with harmful components like copper, lead, and arsenic in water. This achieved a new, efficient, simple, and low-cost water purification process, enabling selective precipitation and recovery of target metal components. We prepared montmorillonite modified material (BHTMt) with excellent pore structure and rich functional groups by dry ball milling, thereby improving its application limitations in gas adsorption. After ball milling, the specific surface area of ​​BTMt increased from 20.6m2/g to 186.4m2/g, and the microporosity was as high as 47%. BTMt has the best adsorption performance for toluene (55.9mg/g), which is 6 times higher than that of the original Mt.

Conclusion

Compared to other methods, ball milling significantly lowers the activation energy during chemical reactions. It reduces powder particle size and increases powder activity. Moreover, it improves particle size distribution and enhances interfacial bonding. It also promotes solid-state ion diffusion and induces low-temperature chemical reactions.
It improves material density and optical, electrical, and thermal properties as well. In addition, ball milling uses simple equipment and offers easy process control. It features low cost, minimal pollution, and high energy efficiency. Thus, it is a promising technique for scalable material production.

Epic powder

Epic Powder, 20+ years of work experience in the ultrafine powder industry. Actively promote the future development of ultra-fine powder, focusing on crushing,grinding,classifying and modification process of ultra-fine powder.  Contact us for a free consultation and customized solutions! Our expert team is dedicated to providing high-quality products and services to maximize the value of your powder processing. Epic Powder—Your Trusted Powder Processing Expert !