The creation of the global operating unit Battery Materials will allow us to take a more integrated, solutions-oriented approach to serving battery manufacturers, leveraging our resources and expertise in a unified and focused manner.

—Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, member of the Board of Executive Directors and Research Executive Director of BASF SE

The new Battery Materials unit will be integrated into the Catalysts division and led by Ralf Meixner, who is with BASF for 29 years and currently serves as Vice President, Business Management, Industrial Petrochemicals Europe. Effective 1 January 2012, Meixner will assume the role of BASF Senior Vice President, Battery Materials, and become part of the company’s Catalysts division leadership team, based in Iselin, New Jersey.

Over the next five years, BASF will invest a three-digit million euro sum in researching, developing and the production of battery materials. (Earlier post.) BASF offers a portfolio of advanced NCM (Nickel Cobalt Manganese) cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries to allow higher energy density, improved safety due to a higher temperature stability, and increased efficiency by enabling more discharge/charge cycles for batteries.

BASF is a license holder of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory-patented NCM cathode materials, which employ a unique combination of lithium and manganese-rich mixed metal oxides. (Earlier post.)

As well as developing materials for lithium-ion batteries, which include solutions for anodes and separators, the company is also researching future battery concepts such as lithium-sulfur or lithium-air. (Earlier post.)