Batteries are the largest non-alloy market for manganese, accounting for 2% to 3% of world manganese consumption. In this application, manganese, usually in the form of manganese dioxide and sulphate, is primarily used as a cathode material in battery cells.
Primary and secondary batteries
The forms in which manganese is consumed are natural battery-grade (NMD) ore, which is used in the traditional types of primary battery, such as zinc-carbon (Leclanché) batteries, synthetic chemical or electrolytic manganese dioxide (CMD and EMD), which find application in both primary batteries and the more modern secondary battery systems, and manganese sulphate, which is used primarily in lithium-ion batteries.
A recently growing use for EMD and manganese sulphate is in lithium metal oxide and lithium metal phosphate cathodes in lithium-ion batteries for use in applications ranging from high-energy hand-held consumer electronics to large format battery applications such as electric vehicles.
IMnI report on Manganese in batteries is available for purchase here