GRA
Well-known member
Via GCC: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2016/02/20160204-nmc.html
Nanoparticle nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), an emerging material that is being rapidly incorporated into lithium-ion battery cathodes, has been shown to impair Shewanella oneidensis, a key soil bacterium, according to new research published in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials. . . .
A single, modest electric vehicle with a typical ~24 kWh battery pack using NMC (specific capacity = 165 mAh/g at 3.8 V potential) contains >38 kg of nanoscale cathode material. With estimates of 20 million electric vehicles on the road by the year 2020, nanoscale metal oxides represent an emerging potential environmental contaminant. . . .
Haynes noted that “it is not reasonable to generalize the results from one bacterial strain to an entire ecosystem, but this may be the first ‘red flag’ that leads us to consider this more broadly. . . .”