Understanding the surfaces of fast charging battery materials: SURF-FAST

了解快速充电电池材料的表面：SURF-FAST

• 批准号: 10060998
• 金额: $ 1.24万
• 依托单位: NYOBOLT LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10060998
• 关键词: Understanding; surfaces; fast; charging; battery

At Nyobolt, we are working on creating an ultra-fast charging lithium-ion battery that can be used in both electric vehicles and consumer goods applications, minimizing downtime by shortening the recharging period, and reframing customer's expectations about where and how we can use batteries.Developed at the University of Cambridge, Nyobolt's ultra-fast charging technology uses niobium tungsten oxides (NWO) as battery anode materials. Conventional lithium-ion materials typically contain graphite or lithium titanate (LTO) as anodes and suffer from both safety and performance issues, the latter due in part to their inherently slow lithium ion movement throughout the material. In contrast, NWOs enable lithium ions to move rapidly though their structures - with ion diffusion coefficients that are several orders of magnitude higher than those in e.g., LTO. This is the key to their ability to be used for a quicker charge and higher power in a battery. What's more, these high ion mobilities can be achieved without nanosizing. This has a significant impact on sustainability - we can avoid the complexity and cost of nanoparticles without compromising on the performance. Prof. Clare Grey and Dr Sai Shivareddy founded Nyobolt Limited in 2019 to bring this UK IP to market and offer a fast-charging solution to customers.In a battery cell, these anodes (which are themselves a composite material) will be paired with a typical cathode electrode and combined with a separator soaked in an electrolyte solution. The interaction of all these components and the resulting changes to the various surfaces present can have a significant impact on the performance of the battery during its operation. Small changes in the chemistry and cycling conditions can have a big influence on key performance indicators, such as lifetime, rate-performance, and capacity retention. These will also impact the overall safety of the cell.This project seeks to study these changes to the surface using techniques at the National Physical Laboratory which provide both sufficient sensitivity and complementary information (e.g. SIMS, Raman, XPS), which are not currently readily available in routine R&D work programs at Nyobolt.By understanding the surface, we can tailor solutions by changing the battery chemistry or electrochemical conditions during cycling to target improved performance, creating a better product to out-compete current state-of-the-art technology. A better fast-charging battery can enable the wider and faster adoption of electric vehicles in UK and electrification more generally and contribute to the UK's net-zero strategy.

在 Nyobolt，我们正在致力于创造一种可用于电动汽车和消费品应用的超快速充电锂离子电池，通过缩短充电周期来最大限度地减少停机时间，并重新定义客户对电池使用地点和方式的期望。Nyobolt 的超快速充电技术由剑桥大学开发，使用铌钨氧化物 (NWO) 作为电池阳极 材料。传统的锂离子材料通常包含石墨或钛酸锂（LTO）作为阳极，并且存在安全和性能问题，后者部分归因于它们固有的缓慢的锂离子在整个材料中的移动。相比之下，NWO 使锂离子能够在其结构中快速移动，其离子扩散系数比 LTO 等材料高几个数量级。这是它们能够用于更快充电和更高功率电池的关键。更重要的是，这些高离子迁移率无需纳米尺寸即可实现。这对可持续性具有重大影响——我们可以在不影响性能的情况下避免纳米颗粒的复杂性和成本。 Clare Gray 教授和 Sai Shivareddy 博士于 2019 年创立了 Nyobolt Limited，将这一英国 IP 推向市场，并为客户提供快速充电解决方案。在电池中，这些阳极（本身就是复合材料）将与典型的阴极电极配对，并与浸泡在电解质溶液中的隔膜结合在一起。所有这些组件的相互作用以及由此产生的各种表面的变化可能会对电池在运行过程中的性能产生重大影响。化学和循环条件的微小变化可能会对关键性能指标产生很大影响，例如寿命、倍率性能和容量保持率。这些也将影响电池的整体安全性。该项目旨在利用国家物理实验室的技术来研究表面的这些变化，这些技术提供了足够的灵敏度和补充信息（例如 SIMS、拉曼、XPS），而这些信息目前在 Nyobolt 的常规研发工作项目中还不容易获得。通过了解表面，我们可以通过改变循环过程中的电池化学或电化学条件来定制解决方案，以提高性能，创造更好的性能。 产品超越当前最先进的技术。更好的快速充电电池可以使英国更广泛、更快地采用电动汽车，并更普遍地实现电气化，并为英国的净零排放战略做出贡献。