Natrion Unveils New Battery Components that Reduce Fire Risks

New York-based solid state electric vehicle battery technology player – Natrion – has unveiled performance metrics for its patented solid-electrolyte separator in Li-ion battery cells using graphite anode. This comes as more and more reports of lithium battery fires make headlines.

Natrion said that the new material, LISIC278, is a version of Natrion’s patented Lithium Solid Ionic Composite (LISIC) electrolyte made to mimic the exact specifications of a standard polyolefin separator while utilizing significantly less liquid electrolyte. LISIC accomplishes this by delivering high ion transport capability at ambient conditions while having a thermal resilience in excess of 200°C and being fully dense (zero porosity).

The result is a near-zero fire risk for batteries built with LISIC, and a significantly reduced ability for a thermal event to intensify or expand, says Natrion.

Alex Kosyakov, Co-Founder and CEO, Natrion, said, “Reducing our reliance on flammable liquids in EV batteries is key to reducing fire risk and ultimately making mass EV adoption more viable. So the fact that this data shows we can produce battery cells that are just as efficient with only a small fraction of that liquid is a huge win.”

Natrion said that it tested the new material over multiple controlled lab experiments using pouch cells up to 11 layers in thickness. In one controlled experiment, Natrion compared its LISIC278 against a standard separator at the one-layer pouch level.

The control used was a standard pouch containing NMC532 cathode, LP40 liquid electrolyte, and a natural graphite anode with a conventional separator. The Natrion pouch was identical but used the LISIC278 separator in place of the conventional one.

LISIC278 Results for Natrion:

Natrion cell took just 3 hours to charge, compared with 5 hours for the conventional one at the same capacity which is a 40% increase.

The fast charge time was coupled with only about 1/10th of the flammable liquid as the conventional cell.

High initial coulombic efficiency was also observed. Conventional Li-ion cells typically discharge less energy than they are charged with during the first few times that they are cycled which contributes to permanent capacity loss (i.e. lower available energy or range). Natrion cells exhibited higher initial coulombic efficiencies and resultantly improved capacity retention at higher C-rates.

In sum, the Natrion cell was able to deliver more energy at higher charge/discharge rates while using less flammable material. Importantly, this was accomplished using a solid electrolyte separator that is built to the exact same specifications of existing separators, for rapid integration in current battery manufacturing processes.

Natrion said that it will be unveiling its results for Lithium-anode data in the coming weeks.