High-Capacity Anode for Rechargeable Batteries Wins 2015 R&D 100 Award

December 1, 2015

A team led by Gao Liu of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab’s) Energy Storage & Distributed Resources Division has won a 2015 R&D 100 award for developing a high-capacity anode for rechargeable batteries. Berkeley Lab’s Hui Zhao also participated in the development, as did Zeptor co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Chuck Consorte.

The material and process developments from Berkeley Lab and Zeptor finally made it possible to transition from low-capacity graphite anodes to economical, high-capacity silicon anodes. The technology is already moving toward commercialization; Zeptor is using it to produce a high-capacity rechargeable battery that can double the lifespan of a state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery, increasing capacity by 40 percent. Pilot tests show a higher capacity, a longer lifespan, improved safety, and lower costs than state-of-the-art batteries.

In addition, the Berkeley Lab and Zeptor team is also working with consumer electronics and electric vehicle manufacturers to improve lithium-ion battery performance in those sectors, and the end users are planning to use the resulting high-energy-density battery in the next generation of products.

R&D Magazine’s annual R&D 100 Awards recognize the top 100 technology products from industry, academia, and government-sponsored research. For more information on the awards, see the links below.

Author

Mark Wilson