New materials for lithium-ion batteries could double range of electric vehicles

Part of the Faraday Battery Challenge, announced by business secretary Greg Clark last year, the project is developing materials based on silicon to replace carbon in the anode of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Other partners in the project include University College London (UCL) and Synthomer, a polymer manufacturer and developer; these partners contribute to the project’s name: SUNRISE (Synthomer, UCL and Nexeon’s Rapid Improvement in the Storage of Energy).

The total cost of the project, according to Nexeon, is £10m, of which £7m is being provided by Innovate UK. An important aim is to overcome a current difficulty with silicon in Li-ion batteries: expansion and contraction of the anode when the cells are charged and discharged, which limits the proportion of silicon in the anode to around 10 per cent. This can be overcome, the company claims, by using an innovative form of silicon that it is developing, combined with a polymer binder being developed and optimised by Synthomer, which is also working to ensure that cohesion between binder and silicon is not compromised over the battery’s lifetime.