Lithium sulfide is a key raw material for sulfide solid electrolytes, and the market has huge development potential.

Lithium sulfide is a lithium sulfide with the molecular formula Li2S. It appears as white to yellow crystals with an inverse fluorite structure. It is easily soluble in water, soluble in ethanol and acid, and insoluble in alkali. According to different purity, lithium sulfide can be divided into lithium sulfide with purity of 99.9% (3N) and purity of 99.99% (4N). Lithium sulfide is an important inorganic salt compound that can be used as a raw material in the production of solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion battery (lithium battery) is a new type of energy storage battery that can be widely used in electronics, energy storage, aviation, electricity, automobiles and other fields. According to different electrolyte materials, it can be divided into two types: liquid lithium battery and solid lithium battery . Among them, liquid lithium batteries are the mainstream lithium batteries in the current market, with a higher degree of industrialization and more mature technology; solid-state lithium batteries are a new type of lithium battery with great development potential. Compared with liquid lithium batteries, they are safer and work better. It has a wider temperature limit and can achieve higher charge transfer efficiency. In the future, as technology continues to upgrade, it is expected to become the mainstream of the lithium battery market.

Lithium sulfide is a key raw material for generating sulfide solid electrolyte, the core material of solid-state lithium batteries. Currently, with domestic companies actively developing solid-state lithium batteries, the market demand for lithium sulfide is continuing to increase. In 2022, my country’s lithium sulfide market size has reached 12.534 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 35.6%. At the same time, as the research and development process of enterprises continues to accelerate in the future, solid-state lithium batteries are expected to accelerate the realization of large-scale mass production and application. Against this background, the demand for lithium sulfide will increase significantly, and there is broad room for development in the market.

From the production side, there are various production methods for lithium sulfide, including liquid phase sol-gel distillation method, high-temperature reduction of lithium sulfate method, molten metal lithium, sulfur method, etc. Among them, the high-temperature reduction of lithium sulfate method is currently a common method for preparing lithium sulfide. It refers to a method that uses lithium sulfate as raw material, sucrose as carbon source, and generates lithium sulfide through high-temperature reduction reaction. It has the advantages of simple process, high energy consumption, and high product output. Disadvantages of low purity. In addition, other lithium sulfide production methods also have different advantages and disadvantages, and related production processes will need to be continuously upgraded in the future.

According to the “Lithium Sulfide Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Prospects Forecast Analysis Report 2023-2028” released by the Industrial Research Center, currently Domestic lithium sulfide production companies include Chengdu Hanpu High-tech Materials Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Kaiyada Semiconductor Materials Co., Ltd., Ganfeng Lithium Industry Co., Ltd., Shanghai Oujin Industrial Co., Ltd., Hubei Xinrunde Chemical Co., Ltd., etc., with a relatively large number of companies. There are few, and the industry concentration is relatively high.

Industry analysts said that lithium sulfide is an important lithium compound and is used in the production of solid-state lithium batteries. A key raw material for medium sulfide solid electrolytes. Due to technical limitations, domestic solid-state lithium batteries have not yet been industrialized. Therefore, lithium sulfide is currently mainly used in the research and development of sulfide solid electrolytes. The market development space is small and the number of manufacturing companies is small. However, in the future, under the background of accelerated industrialization of domestic solid-state lithium batteries, the demand for lithium sulfide is expected to grow significantly, and the industry has huge development potential.