NanoGraf Featured in Top 12 Battery Technologies on Battery Tech Online's Radar

NanoGraf Technologies

One way to increase lithium-ion battery performance is to replace the carbon graphite-based anode (negative electrode) with one made from silicon. Silicon can hold a greater amount of lithium ions than graphite and thus can hold more energy. But silicon expands dramatically when lithium ions are inserted into its structure causing cracking which severely limits the number of charging cycles that the battery can withstand. A variety of techniques are under study to prevent this from occurring.

NanoGraf Technologies has demonstrated a new high energy density Si-based anode material that has the long-term potential to replace graphite-based anodes in lithium-ion batteries. NanoGraf uses a proprietary silicon alloy-graphene material architecture to overcome the silicon anode technical hurdles. The combination of silicon-based alloys and a flexible 3D graphene network helps stabilize the active material during charge and discharge. The company’s manufacturing process is different from others that rely on expensive and complex vapor deposition-based systems. Instead, a wet chemistry process has been developed that is highly scalable and already proven in a multi-ton-scale pilot manufacturing line in Japan. The anode material drops into existing electrode mixing and coating equipment and has been validated in large-scale battery manufacturing facilities.