CR2450 battery

The Netherlands develops new CR2450 battery technology: using pure silicon anodes to increase battery capacity by 50%

The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has developed a new lithium-ion battery energy storage technology that is said to increase the storage capacity of rechargeable batteries by 50%.

In order to commercialize this new invention, ECN has also established a startup company, LeydenJar Technologies.

The technology uses pure silicon anodes to replace the graphite anodes traditionally used in lithium-ion batteries, thereby increasing the storage capacity of lithium-ion battery components by 10 times and the storage capacity of the entire battery by 50%. However, the problem with using silicon crystals is that when the battery is charged, it will expand, making the size of the components three times larger, which may make the silicon layer brittle and cause the battery material to break.

ECN uses plasma-based nanotechnology to arrange silicon pillars on copper foil, thereby creating enough space for possible expansion and allowing the battery to remain stable. For commercial applications, this silicon layer will eventually be as thin as about 10 microns, which is almost 10 times thinner than a piece of paper.

Wim Soppe, a researcher at ECN, has been exploring this material since he started developing thin-film solar cells 12 years ago. He said, "For solar cells, this material is not stable, but we found that this technology has great potential for lithium-ion batteries."

Sjoerd Wittkampf, technology transfer manager at ECN, said that there is a lot of research going on around the world in the hope of further improving lithium-ion batteries. "There are major breakthroughs in this area every few weeks. These new discoveries usually focus on materials that can only be produced on a small scale in a laboratory environment."

"What makes ECN's development so promising is that the technology for mass production of this material is close at hand, because it is similar to the production process currently used for solar cells. We think this will help give us a unique advantage. After the establishment of LeydenJar Technologies, we will transfer this technology and eventually make it available on the market, seeking the best fit between the battery industry and venture capitalists (VC).

"Due to the widespread application of lithium-ion batteries, the newly established company will focus on three important market areas, namely electric vehicles (EV), consumer electronics, and renewable energy storage," said Christian Rood, co-founder of LeydenJar Technologies.

"The goal is to supply technology to large battery manufacturers. In the future demonstration plant, we hope to produce silicon anodes for the first customers and show that this technology is competitive in mass production. "

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