Nexeon, a leader in engineered silicon materials for battery applications, has increased its strategic partnership with globally active chemicals company WACKER Chemie AG. The agreement will see WACKER invest an undisclosed sum in Nexeon and take a 25% stake in the business.

The two companies have worked together intensively in the recent past. WACKER’s expertise will be especially useful as Nexeon achieves increasing customer engagement, and scales to higher manufacturing volumes of its silicon-based anode materials.

Silicon-based anodes can provide higher cell energy density leading to greater vehicle range and higher performance.

Today’s agreement is a key step in renewing our partnership with Nexeon, and intensifying our research activities into silicon based anode materials for next-generation batteries. We are ideally positioned to develop and produce these innovative materials, given our decades of in-depth expertise in silicon chemistry.

—Christian Hartel, responsible for R&D on WACKER’s Executive Board