Powerful lithium-ion batteries produced by US university spin-out

Dan Rogers - 11 Jan 2010

A US university spin-out is due to reveal a prototype of its cheaply-manufactured, high-performance lithium ion batteries in February 2010.

Prieto Battery has spun out of Colorado State University to scale up production of its batteries, which are produced with the electrodeposition of nanowires and organic polymers in a process that is cheap and repeatable, says Amy Prieto, assistant chemistry professor in Colorado State's College of Natural Sciences.

She states: 'The plan is to get to the point in the next two years where we can handle small-scale production.'

The spin-out is aiming to find an industrial partner to take on the batteries and adopt its cheap manufacturing process to increase volumes.

Prieto explains: 'We're very close to our first prototype now, which will help to determine what market to go for first. We're looking to replace internal combustion engines in fleet vehicles, for instance.

'In the US this is a significant market - the likes of lawnmowers and all-terrain vehicles could be powered with these devices.'

Collaboration

Prieto Battery is already working with a local automotive distributor, the Burt Automotive Network, to test the first batteries in operation.

Prieto believes that the company will be able to establish an industrial partnership in fields such as automotive, clean energy and the military due to the focus on cheap production.

She comments: 'What makes us quite different is that we made a list of requirements to keep this inexpensive. The first big innovation was how to electrodeposit at room temperature, which was key to making the battery inexpensive to fabricate.'

Production

According to Prieto Battery, the devices have a power density 1,000 times higher than comparative lithium-ion batteries and can do 500-600 miles on 10,000 cycles over their lifetimes, compared to 1,000 cycles of around 240 miles typically offered by alternative lithium-ion batteries.

They are produced by growing nanowire anodes using electrodeposition and coating these with organic polymers that help the anode to be conductive, while isolating the cathode to protect against shorting.

The spin-out has been initially funded by US firm Bohemian Asset Management.