EVs are still behind ICE vehicles on all key parameters. This is preventing them from becoming truly widespread:
TUBALL™ graphene nanotubes (also known as single wall carbon nanotubes) are the solution to the major technological challenge of improving lithium-ion battery parameters such as energy density, charge rate, cycle life and cost.
There is the fundamental and unresolved problem with silicon of its expansion during battery charging and discharging, which leads to cracking and loss of contact between the silicon material particles.
TUBALL™ graphene nanotubes cover the surface of the silicon particles and create highly conductive and durable connections between them. These connections are so dense, long, conductive and strong that, even when the silicon particles in the anode expand and the material starts to crack, the particles stay well connected to each other through the TUBALL™ graphene nanotubes. This prevents the anode from going out of service – the hugely improved cycle life is enough to meet even the most strict EV manufacturer's requirements.
Leading Li-ion manufacturers have proven that TUBALL™ nanotubes make it possible today to create anodes with 20% SiO inside and thus reach record-breaking battery energy densities – up to 300 Wh/kg and 800 Wh/l. Such battery cells can deliver up to +15% higher range than the best Li-ion battery cells on the market!
OCSiAl R&D team results show that it’s possible to increase the SiO content in anodes to 90%, which will result in energy densities of 350 Wh/kg and 1350 Wh/l.
Thanks to their unique intrinsic properties, graphene nanotubes outperform competitors and offer substantial Li-ion battery performance improvements in terms of discharge power, energy density and adhesion, as well as safety. Such performance improvements for Li-ion battery cathodes cannot be demonstrated by any traditional conductive additives, such as carbon black or multi wall carbon nanotubes.
Explore more on TUBALL™ in anodes and cathodes.
OCSiAl, the world's largest manufacturer of graphene nanotubes (single wall carbon nanotubes), has developed ready-to-use solutions for both anodes and cathodes. TUBALL™ BATT contains well-dispersed nanotubes in water or NMP and it can simply be mixed in during standard manufacturing process.
Application
Energy Storage
Materials
Anodes
Carrier Media
Water, PVP, CMC, PAA, other
Application
Energy Storage
Materials
Cathodes
Carrier Media
NMP, PVDF, others
Contact us to discuss your project specifications or to request a sample
The pitch-derived soft carbon and SWCNTs provided an excellent conductivity, and the porous structure of the composite accommodated the stress produced by the Si expansion.
High thickness and specific capacity leads to areal capacities of up to 45 and 30 mAh cm−2 for anodes and cathodes, respectively. Combining optimized composite anodes and cathodes yields full cells with state-of-the-art areal capacities (29 mAh cm−2) and specific/volumetric energies (480 Wh kg−1 and 1,600 Wh l−1).
The all‐nanomat full cell shows exceptional improvement in battery energy density – 479 Wh/kg battery, and Si-anode capacity – 1166 mAh/g.
The use of SWCNT conductive additive enables graphite-free SiO electrodes with 74% higher volumetric energy and superior full-cell cycling compared to graphite electrodes.
Areal capacities greater than 10 mAh/cm2 and volumetric capacities greater than 1400 mAh/cm3 can be achieved.
Replacing Denka black with SWCNT allows to reduce the carbon content to 0.2 wt% to further increase the energy density, and 2 wt% of PVDF was shown to benefit the cycling stability due to the mitigated PVDF-induced side reactions from its direct contact with NCA particles.