Graphene batteries: Introduction and Market News - Page 31

The Greece-based IntelenAn has announced that a working model of a graphene-enhanced lithium ion "smart" battery for households will be ready in February 2018.

The company's CEO mentioned that two Greek firms are currently collaborating to develop the first model of a lithium ion 'smart' battery for commercial use. He noted his team is working with researchers at the Demokritos research center, who have set up a specialized company and developed a new lithium ion electrode enriched with graphene.

Researchers at Clemson University in the U.S have shown that replacing lithium with aluminum and graphene may be key for next-gen batteries.

Aluminum is regarded as non-toxic and much more plentiful than the lithium currently in widespread use (and cheaper). Aluminum also transfers energy more efficiently. Inside a battery, the element - lithium or aluminum - gives up some of its electrons, which flow through external wires to power a device. Because of their atomic structure, lithium ions can only provide one electron at a time; aluminum can give three at a time. That, the team says, is the real point of the switch.

Talga Resources recently provided an update on its UK battery development programs in Warwick Manufacturing Group’s Energy Innovation Centre and at Talga’s Cambridge product development labs. Talga has reportedly received highly encouraging results from 1,200 hours of testwork on a new Li-ion battery anode formulation that combines both its micrographite and GNP materials.

The anode exhibited outstanding electrochemical performance across a range of key industry measures, including reversible capacity of ~420mAh/g over a 100 cycle average with a retention of 99.5% and coulombic efficiency of 99.9%. The capacity measure reflects a ~20% increase in capacity performance compared to commercially available graphite anodes (usually around 330mAh/g). This is significant as increased battery energy density translates into increased range for electric cars and more usage time for a mobile device.

Today we published new versions of all our graphene market reports. Graphene-Info provides comprehensive niche graphene market reports, and our reports cover everything you need to know about these niche markets. The reports are now updated to October 2017.

The Graphene Batteries Market Report:

• The advantages using graphene batteries
• The different ways graphene can be used in batteries
• Various types of graphene materials
• What's on the market today
• Detailed specifications of some graphene-enhanced anode material
• Personal contact details into most graphene developers

The report package provides a good introduction to the graphene battery - present and future. It includes a list of all graphene companies involved with batteries and gives detailed specifications of some graphene-enhanced anode materials and contact details into most graphene developers. Read more here!

Rice University scientists have developed highly efficient battery anodes using graphene and asphalt. To achieve this, the researchers mixed asphalt with conductive graphene nanoribbons and coated the composite with lithium metal through electrochemical deposition. The anodes showed exceptional stability after more than 500 charge-discharge cycles. A high-current density of 20 milliamps per square centimeter demonstrated the material’s promise for use in rapid charge and discharge devices that require high-power density.

SEM images show an anode of asphalt, graphene nanoribbons and lithium at left and the same material without lithium at right

The capacity of these batteries is enormous, but what is equally remarkable is that we can bring them from zero charge to full charge in five minutes, rather than the typical two hours or more needed with other batteries, Prof. James Tour said.

Australia-based technology minerals company, Talga Resources, is actively developing graphene materials and graphene-based applications across many areas, including coatings, batteries, construction materials, composites and more.

Mark Thompson, Talga's managing director, was kind enough to update us on Talga's graphene program and answer a few questions we had.

Q: Thank you for this interview, Mark. Can you quickly update us on your graphite mine operation in Sweden?

Talga has over 20 years of graphite mining potential outlined in economic studies to date and currently extracts intermittently what it needs for scale up and testing purposes. Talga mined approximately 5,000 tonnes of graphite ore during 2015-16 trial mining operations. Further extraction is not required for now but permitting for the future larger scale operations is underway.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee scientists $1.5 million to perfect a method of mass-producing graphene-based small water sensors using inkjet printing. The goal is to determine whether the process can be customized in order to scale up production and in a more economic way than traditional manufacturing methods.

The graphene-based sensors, developed at UWM, reportedly outperform current technologies in accuracy, sensitivity and sensing speed. Their performance and size make them useful for continuously monitoring drinking water for miniscule traces of contaminants like lead.

Researchers at Clemson University in the U.S have designed a prototype Aluminum-ion battery (AIB) that uses a graphene electrode to intercalate tetrachloroaluminate (AlCl4). The researchers have used the device to investigate the effect of defects and doping on battery performance.

Aluminum-ion batteries are gaining recognition in the scientific community as a potential alternative to Li-ion battery systems, but so far there have been many obstacles. Unlike in LIBs, where the mobile ion is Li+, aluminum forms a complex with chloride in most electrolytes and generates an anionic mobile charge carrier, usually AlCl4 or Al2Cl7. The team at Clemson University's Nanomaterials Institute have elucidated the intercalation mechanism of the AlCl4 anion in graphene electrodes, and provided a unique insight into the influence of defects and doping on the intercalation process.

Shanxi Leqi Graphene Technology, a Chinese company working on graphene applications, announced a new graphene-based batteries project. The project will reportedly be divided into 2 phases: a graphene composite conductive paste project with a capacity of 7,500 tpy (expected to start pilot production in December 2017), and a second phase in which the Company will develop a graphene lithium NCA battery anode material, expected to start in July 2018 and reach pilot production in early 2019.

Reports say that the first phase received a total investment of 100 million RMB (almost $15 million USD), and phase 2 secured 200 million RMB (almost $30 million USD).

We recently reported that U.S-based Alliance Rubber signed an agreement with University of Sussex to study how graphene could be used in rubber products. Now, Zenyatta Ventures and said Alliance Rubber and the University of Sussex have announced a collaboration program to develop enhanced rubber products.

Alliance manufactures 2,200 products and markets them in 55 countries. It is funding research at Sussex to develop enhanced new rubber products using graphene, focusing on rubber sensor products that will hold credit and debit cards to prevent hacking of information stored on the chip. The Alliance program will also focus on a rubber sensor product attached to food produce that changes color when the produce item reaches a set temperature or after a certain amount of time passes since harvest. This product can also act as a bar code on produce in grocery stores.