1. Tesla/Panasonic Investments In Cobalt-Free Batteries Not The Only Game in Town.

Tesla/Panasonic Investments In Cobalt-Free Batteries Not The Only Game in Town At a time when Panasonic is considering additional investment in Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory, others are increasingly seeing the benefit of research support to find alternatives to politically, structurally, and geographically problematic cobalt

Solutions for the problems of silicon–carbon anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Since we talked about Tesla acquisition and game changer etc...I looked around for any other companies, universities researching for alternatives. I found multiple. currently lithium ion manufacturers uses for their cathode technology lithium, cobalt (expensive), and manganese. In order to drive the price down companies started to use or look for alternatives to the high cost and politically incorrect Cobalt. Musk has tweeted a lot about this issue.: batteries with high energy density, excellent longevity, light weight, and can be used commercially.2. Silicon holds great potential as an anode material because it holds > 25 times than graphite that is currently used in batteries. You may know the problems of using high silicon contents: expand when it accommodate high amount of lithium ions and shrink when the energy is used up. Shrinking and expanding can cause fractures. Hold your thoughts. Some companies have been working on this and some find solutions.With the development of social progress, increasing energy demands are becoming more urgent in various fields such as electronics, renewable energy generation systems and electric vehicles [ 1 4 ]. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are considered as candidates for the increasing demand of portable electronic devices and electric and hybrid vehicles due to their high energy densities and stable cycle life. A secondary lithium-ion battery is fabricated with an anode, a cathode, a separator and electrolytes. Both the electrodes act as lithium ion hosts with a separator membrane to avoid a short circuit while the electrolyte supplies lithium ions. The specific energy of a battery is determined by the specific capacities of the cathode and anode materials [ 5 ]. Among various anode materials, silicon has attracted considerable attention because of its highest theoretical specific capacity (about 4200 mAh g−1), which is ten times higher than that of conventional carbon anodes (372 mAh g−1) and satisfactory potentials for lithium insertion and extraction (<0.5 V versus Li/Li+) [ 6 ].1, Dan Schneier1, Emanuel Peled1, Fernando Patolsky1, Diana Golodnitsky1,2, Guy Davidi1, Nimrod Harpak1, Edna Mados1New, higher capacity materials are required in order to address the fast growing need for greater energy density, longer cycle life and safer high-power operation batteries for both mobile and vehicle applications.We present the study of a scalable low-cost chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis and characterization of a novel 3D-architecture high-capacity silicon anode for lithium ion battery. The formation and growth of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and anode degradation mechanisms have been examined as a function of the composition and structure of the active anode material. Our research efforts have culminated in the outstanding performance of 3D silicon anode: high areal capacity of 3−5 mAh/cm2, high gravimetric capacity of up to 2000mAh/gr-Si and a very low irreversible capacity (7-15%). Cycle life over 500 full charge-discharge cycles was demonstrated in Si/Li half-cells. Pairing the 3D silicon anode with a commercial cathode resulted in a full lithium- ion battery with cycle life over 200 cycles. The developed anodes have the potential to increase the energy density of lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles, storage devices and portable applications by 60%. Due to high melting points of lithium-rich silicon compounds, and higher working potentials (vs. Li) these batteries are safer than both Li-ion and lithium-metal cells.