Engineered Silicon for Improved-Performance EV Batteries

Improving the performance and lowering the cost of batteries will help to further increase market penetration of HEV and EVs, consequently reducing our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels. The current state-of-the-art EV battery technology is Lithium Ion Batteries (LIBs). However, for EV’s LIB technology has limiting specific energy (~200 W-h/kg) and insufficient durability. Lighter and more durable batteries will increase the range of EVs and/or lower the total battery cost per vehicle. This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project will develop a high capacity composite anode for lithium ion batteries. Current high capacity lithium ion anodes suffer from issues of loss in energy storage capacity after multiple cycles at high charge and discharge rates. pH Matter and the University of Akron will address this issues with a novel electrode formulation consisting of engineered silicon, carbon and binder materials that will enable long-term cyclability and high charge/discharge rates. The performance of this composite electrode will be demonstrated in a 200 mAh pouch cell in Phase I, and 2 Ah cells in Phase II. The high capacity anode developed in this project would extend the driving range of electric vehicles and enable the utilization of electricity generated by renewable methods, lowering our dependence of fossil based fuels. Improving the performance and lowering the cost of electrical storage devices will also enable wide scale adoption of renewable energy as the high cost of grid storage will no longer be a barrier. Consequently, the technology will also result in reduced carbon dioxide emissions. In addition to the immense impact the technology could have for EVs, the battery technology being developed would also be useful for portable electronics, and military/aerospace UAVs, and grid-load leveling.