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FORNY20-FORNY2020

SiliconX: Unique scalable anode material for next generation batteries

Alternative title: SiliconX: Et unikt og skalerbart anode materiale for neste generasjons batterier.

Awarded: NOK 5.0 mill.

Project Number:

341676

Project Period:

2023 - 2025

Funding received from:

Fossil fuels still power most of the cars on the road and coal, oil and natural gas still contribute to 84% of the world’s primary energy consumption. One of the biggest bottlenecks to transitioning away from these polluting fuels to cleaner energy sources is todays limited energy storage technology. Lithium-ion batteries are promising energy storage solutions, but current technology cannot meet the world's immense energy storage demand. The key to improving Li-ion technology is to increase a battery's capacity to store more energy. Silicon is recognized by top researchers as the most promising material for increasing this energy capacity due to its unique structure. When added to a battery's anode, silicon can theoretically give 10 times higher energy capacity compared to today's solutions. However, the challenge with silicon is its stability. Every time a silicon-based battery charges and discharges the material shrinks and swells dramatically, like inflating and deflating a balloon, causing the silicon particles to crack. For this reason, silicon materials have not been stable enough for full use in today's battery technology. Researchers at IFE have found a solution to the stability issues by creating a new, unique silicon-based anode material (SiliconX). This material demonstrates an unparalleled combination of high capacity, stability and tunability. The SiliconX material can increase a battery's anode capacity by a factor of 3-5 and above compared to today's carbon anode, while remaining stable for hundreds of charge-discharge cycles. SiliconX therefore has the potential to enable better electric vehicles (EVs) and consumer electronics and could open new industrial applications such as Li-ion-based grid storage for renewable sources.

Funding scheme:

FORNY20-FORNY2020