PFI-TT: Paving the way to the commercialization of additives that boost battery performance

这一创新技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力来自于添加剂的开发，这种添加剂可以立即提高电池容量，而不会对其制造方案产生任何改变。缺乏负担得起的高容量电池被认为是广泛使用电动汽车和可再生能源的障碍。需要改进电池，以支持向更绿色、更可持续的社会过渡。可轻松集成到当前电池设计中的添加剂的开发将促进它们的实施和未来的商业化，使它们在电池市场迅速扩张和竞争日益激烈的时候获得至关重要的优势。这笔NSF PFI-TT赠款将支持技术验证和现场测试原型的开发，这两项都是实现成功商业化的必要步骤。PI将利用现有与创业概念验证和创新中心(EPIC)的密切合作，以及UCR Riverside(一家经认可的西班牙裔服务机构)存在的大量来自代表性不足的少数族裔的学生，不仅在科学和工程方面提供独特的培训机会，而且在创业方面也提供独特的培训机会。拟议的项目将瞄准基于硅的添加剂，尽管这种添加剂的锂容量远高于广泛使用的石墨，但尚未被电池制造商大规模采用。这既是由于技术问题(硅本身在许多充放电循环中稳定性差)，也是经济问题(硅可以稳定，但这需要复杂的设计)。这个项目将克服这些限制。一个简单的单级碳涂层步骤可以将硅粉集成到以石墨为主的阳极中。仔细控制工艺参数可以实现高质量的碳涂层，这对添加剂的成功使用至关重要。通过开发一种“临时”添加剂，这项技术可以提高电池容量，而不需要电池制造商进行任何资本密集型投资。作为该项目的一部分，这一核心技术将得到提升，在产能改善和循环稳定性方面的结果将通过独立的测试设施进行验证。到该项目完成时，包含硅基添加剂的电池原型将在实际条件下进行现场测试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnership for Innovation – Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project comes from the development of additives that provide an immediate boost in battery capacity without introducing any changes to their manufacturing scheme. The lack of affordable higher-capacity batteries is recognized as a barrier to the broad utilization of, for instance, electric vehicles and renewable energy sources. Improved batteries are needed to support a transition to a greener and more sustainable society. The development of additives that can be easily integrated in current battery designs will facilitate their implementation and future commercialization, giving them a crucial advantage at a time when the battery market is both rapidly expanding and becoming increasingly competitive. This NSF PFI-TT grant will support technological validation and the development of prototypes for field-testing, both necessary step towards successful commercialization. The PI will leverage both the existing close collaboration with the Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept and Innovation Center (EPIC) and the presence of a large population of students from under-represented minorities at UCR Riverside, an accredited Hispanic Serving Institution, to provide unique training opportunities not only in science and engineering but also in entrepreneurship.The proposed project will target additives based on silicon, which, while having much higher lithiation capacity than broadly utilized graphite, has yet to be adopted by battery manufacturers on a large scale. This is due to both technical (silicon alone has poor stability over many charge-discharge cycles) and economic (silicon can be made stable but this requires complex designs) issues. This project will overcome these limitations. A simple, single-stage carbon coating step enables the integration of silicon powders into graphite-dominant anodes. Careful control of the process parameters allows realizing a high-quality carbon coating, which is crucial for the successful utilization of the additives. By developing a “drop-in” additive, this technology enables an increase in battery capacity without requiring any capital intensive investment for the battery manufacturers. As part of this project, this core technology will be advanced and the results in terms of capacity improvement and cycle stability will be validated by independent testing facilities. By the completion of this project, battery prototypes that incorporate silicon-based additives will be field-tested under real-life conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.