Those doggone dendrites are a bane of battery builders. These pesky fern-like growths can form on the surfaces of anodes during cycling, reducing battery life or even causing a catastrophic short circuit – this is how the battery fires on the Boeing 787 are thought to have started. A team of researchers from the University… Read more »
There’s a lot of interest in using lithium metal as an anode material, because of its theoretical high capacity of 3,860 mAh g−1 (around ten times that of the graphite anodes used in typical Li-ion batteries). However, it doesn’t measure up in terms of cycle life and safety requirements, and one reason is the formation of… Read more »
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a lithium-sulfur battery which they estimate will be able to achieve 1,000 real-world cycles with fast charging. In an article published in Nature Communications, the researchers write: “Lithium-sulfur batteries have a high specific capacity, but lithium polysulfide (LPS) diffusion and lithium dendrite growth drastically reduce their cycle… Read more »
Pennsylvania-based venture capital firm Green Swan Partners (GSP) has reached an agreement with Skysong Innovations, the technology transfer arm of Arizona State University (ASU), granting GSP the exclusive option to finalize commercial rights to ASU’s fire-safe battery technologies. The technologies were invented by ASU Regents’ Professor Dr. Jerry Lin, who is also the Chief Scientist… Read more »
Australian battery specialists Li-S Energy and Janus Electric are working together to develop lithium-sulfur and/or lithium metal battery cells for Janus’s swappable battery packs. Janus Electric offers products for converting heavy diesel trucks to EVs, based on an exchangeable battery system. Li-S Energy’s lithium-sulfur cells feature a cathode made of sulfur, carbon, a nanomaterial called… Read more »
California battery developer Sepion has received $16 million from investors, including international chemical firm Solvay. Sepion plans to use the funds to speed up the commercialization of lithium metal batteries for EVs. Solvay offers additives for the electrolytes in Li-ion cells. Sepion’s niche is lithium metal battery cells, which Solvay says feature high energy density… Read more »
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a scalable, low-cost method to improve the joining of materials in solid-state batteries. One of the challenges in manufacturing solid-state batteries is the difficulty of getting materials to properly join and remain stable during repeated cycles of charging and discharging. Scientists studying methods to overcome this contact… Read more »
Battery supplier SES has released Apollo, a 107 Ah Li-metal battery for EVs. The company also announced plans for its Shanghai Giga plant, a 300,000-square-foot facility that the company hopes will be capable of producing 1 GWh of batteries annually by 2023. SES has addressed the dendrite safety problem associated with Li-metal batteries by coating… Read more »
SK has invested an additional $35.9 million in SES (formerly SolidEnergy Systems), a developer of lithium-metal batteries. Coupled with its original $26.7 million investment in 2018, SK now becomes the third-largest shareholder of the battery company. SES, which launched in 2012 as an MIT research lab startup, is headquartered in Singapore, and operates labs and… Read more »
Sponsored by Arkema The lithium-ion battery market is demanding higher energy density, extended lifetime, and improved power performance. Arkema’s Battery Solutions address many of these demands. Advances in electrode materials are addressing energy density, while new electrolyte systems can significantly improve lifetime and power performance. LiFSI, in particular, is a good candidate to replace LiPF6,… Read more »