Materials firm NEO Battery Materials has revealed anode materials that could prove to be a game changer for solid-state lithium-ion batteries.
The Canadian company reported its metallurgical-grade silicon microparticle material achieved “exceptional stability and breakthrough cycling performance” with an all-solid-state electrolyte compared to the cells using liquid electrolytes.
The metallurgical-grade silicon particles of micron-size were able to sustain its original specific capacity of 3000mAh/g without major capacity loss or performance degradation in the cell across 100 cycles at 30oC.
A sulfide-based solid-state electrolyte argyrodite, was used with a 100% loading of NEO’s silicon microparticle anode materials.
Argyrodites represent a promising class of sulfide-based lithium-ion superconductors due to their high ionic conductivity at room temperature, low-cost and good compatibility with lithium.
The battery test was conducted and validated by an unnamed South Korean third-party laboratory.
Metallurgical-grade silicon microparticles are a promising candidate for next-generation silicon anode materials in electric vehicle and energy storage applications due them being 8-10 times cheaper (in dollars-per-kilowatt-hour) than nanoparticles.
However, their poor performance from the volume expansion issue stands as a substantial hurdle for commercialisation.
Dr. Jong Park, director and chief scientific advisor of NEO, said: “Implementing silicon microparticles into the anode material will be a complete game-changer for the lithium-ion battery industry.
“NEO enabled a six-minute ultra-fast charging with the microparticles, and we are more than excited to announce that the low-cost silicon anode made by our modification can exhibit substantial cycling performance in argyrodite-based all solid-state electrolytes.”
New materials plant
NEO has signed a site due diligence contract with a third-party engineering consulting firm for the South Korean semi-commercial facility to produce silicon anode active materials through the company’s proprietary nanocoating process
NEO is under the process of finalising a site through a third-party engineering due diligence report.
Sung Rock Hwang, chief operating officer of NEO and former Samsung SDI executive director, said: “We are currently emphasising how to optimise and accelerate the route to commercialisation.
“This due diligence period will be another milestone step to push NEO’s silicon anode materials into electric vehicles batteries. We are on top of our timeline and will provide continual updates on the semi-commercial facility development.”