Many of the biggest names in silicon battery technology and several emerging players were there to give their outlook on this lithium-ion battery anode material with capacity for exceptional energy storage. It is not difficult to see why there has been well over two decades of sustained interest in silicon as a lithium anode material.
Sila’s silicon powder consists of micrometer-size particles of nanostructured silicon and other materials surrounded by a porous scaffold made of another material. The material enables batteries with 20 percent higher energy density (which translates to about 160 kilometers more range for an EV) than those with graphite anodes.
Silicon promises longer-range, faster-charging and more-affordable EVs than those whose batteries feature today’s graphite anodes. It not only soaks up more lithium ions, it also shuttles them across the battery’s membrane faster. And as the most abundant metal in Earth’s crust, it should be cheaper and less susceptible to supply-chain issues.
But, in a solid state battery, the ions on the surface of the silicon are constricted and undergo the dynamic process of lithiation to form lithium metal plating around the core of silicon. “In our design, lithium metal gets wrapped around the silicon particle, like a hard chocolate shell around a hazelnut core in a chocolate truffle,” said Li.
“Silicon has transformed the way we store information, and now it’s transforming the way we store energy,” says Group14’s chief technology officer, Rick Costantino. Silicon promises longer-range, faster-charging and more-affordable EVs than those whose batteries feature today’s graphite anodes.
SiFAB —silicon fiber anode battery—has recently entered the lithium-ion battery space as a silicon play not from a start-up but from an established fiber material manufacturer. In breaking news, the acquisition of Lydall by Unifrax in 2021 has led to a new company called Alkegen that will be commercializing the SiFAB technology.