The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has entered into an exclusive license agreement with Forge Nano to commercialize NREL’s patented battery materials and systems.

A feature of the technology is the encapsulation of materials with solid electrolyte coatings that can be designed to meet the needs of any battery application. These batteries feature a hybrid solid-liquid electrolyte system, in which the electrodes are coated with a solid electrolyte layer, designed to minimize the potential for the formation of an internal short circuit between electrodes.

Coating the electrode materials also reduces the stress on traditional polymer separators, and can allow for thinner separators, reducing both the cost and weight of a battery.

Lab-scale testing of NREL’s hybrid solid-liquid electrolyte system has shown increased electrode durability and reliability without compromised electrochemical performance. “The cells are less likely to fail, even in demanding, real-world conditions like high temperatures and fast recycle rates,” said Ahmad Pesaran, leader of the team of NREL engineers that invented the technology.

“This license agreement will allow Forge Nano to offer further customized lithium-ion battery materials by utilizing our high-throughput ALD system that has already been successfully tested at the pilot scale and in large-format pouch cells,” Paul Lichty, CEO of Forge Nano, said. “The incorporation of this technology into Forge Nano’s offering will lead to a substantial reduction in cost per unit energy of lithium-ion batteries.”

Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory