Stellantis N.V. and Zeta Energy announced a joint development agreement aimed at advancing battery cell technology for electric vehicle applications. The partnership aims to develop lithium-sulfur EV batteries with high gravimetric energy density while achieving a volumetric energy density comparable to today’s lithium-ion technology. For customers, this means potentially a... Read more →

Monash University (Australia) engineers have developed an ultra-fast charging lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery, capable of powering long-haul EVs and commercial drones. With rapid charging times, the lightweight Li-S batteries could soon power drones, with electric aircraft a future possibility. Researchers aim to demonstrate the technology in commercial drones and electric vertical... Read more →

Lyten will acquire Cuberg’s San Leandro lithium-metal battery manufacturing facility and cell making equipment. Lyten intends to convert the facility to lithium-sulfur and expand capacity to enable up to 200 MWh of lithium-sulfur battery production in the Bay Area at full capacity. As part of the agreement, Lyten will take... Read more →

Researchers have sulfurized a hybrid polymer network with polyphosphazene and carbon for use as a cathode for Li–S batteries. This hybrid polymer network circumvents the formation of soluble polysulfides and enables a unique, reversible inserting conversion reaction. In a study published in Nature Sustainability, the team reports that the cathode... Read more →

Lyten announced plans to invest more than $1 billion to build the world’s first Lithium-Sulfur battery gigafactory. The facility will be located near Reno, Nevada, and will have the capability to produce up to 10 GWh of batteries annually at full scale. Phase 1 of the facility is scheduled to... Read more →

Gelion, a spin-out from the University of Sydney (earlier post), has achieved a high energy density milestone by fabricating a 395 Wh/kg lithium-sulfur 9.5 Ah pouch cell (commercial cell format). This result represents a c. 60% increase in the energy density (lower weight) compared with current lithium-ion batteries (approximately 250... Read more →

Lyten announced it is consistently surpassing 90% yield from its automated battery production line, confirming the manufacturability of its lithium-sulfur battery utilizing a sulfur cathode and lithium metal anode. (Earlier post.) The lithium-sulfur manufacturing performance has been achieved utilizing standard lithium-ion manufacturing equipment and processes. The conversion of lithium-ion equipment... Read more →

A team led by engineers at the University of California San Diego developed a new cathode material for solid-state lithium-sulfur batteries that is electrically conductive and structurally healable—features that overcome the limitations of these batteries’ current cathodes. The work was published in the journal Nature. Solid-state Li–S batteries (SSLSBs) are... Read more →

Lyten has secured a $4-million grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to accelerate the manufacturing of its advanced lithium-sulfur battery technology. The grant, awarded by DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy / Vehicle Technologies Office, specifically targets lithium-sulfur technologies that can alleviate offshore supply chain risk for EV... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $131 million for projects to advance clean mobility, with $71 million from Fiscal Year 2023 project funding (DE-FOA-0002893, earlier post) awarded to 27 projects. In addition, the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) of Southfield, Michigan, will receive $60 million... Read more →

Researchers from Tianjin University of Technology have developed a high-efficiency sulfur host with bimetallic oxide CuCo2O4 cubes supported on carbon cloth for lithium-sulfur batteries. The cubes can suppress the “shuttle effect” and boost the redox reaction kinetics. In an open-access paper in the RSC journal Chemical Communications, they report that... Read more →

Gelion, a spin-out from the University of Sydney, has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Ionblox, a developer of silicon-oxide based fast charging batteries (earlier post), to deliver safe, high-energy density, lower cost lithium silicon sulfur (LiSiS) cells for the global electric vehicle (EV), electrical vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) and drone... Read more →

Researchers from the US and China have identified a previously unknown reaction mechanism that addresses the very short lifetimes of Li-sulfur batteries.Their paper is published in the journal Nature. Lithium-sulfur batteries can store two to three times more energy in a given volume, resulting in longer vehicle ranges. Their lower... Read more →

Lyten, Inc., developer of the Lyten 3D Graphene decarbonization supermaterials platform, commissioned its Lithium-Sulfur battery pilot line at its facility in Silicon Valley. The Lithium-Sulfur pilot line will begin delivering commercial battery cells in 2023 to early-adopting customers within the defense, automotive, logistics, and satellite sectors. (Earlier post.) Battery delivery... Read more →

Australian battery technology company Li-S Energy recently announced the development of its first 20-layer battery cells utilizing third-generation (GEN3) semi-solid-state lithium-sulfur battery technology. Key benefits Li-S Energy’s GEN3 lithium-sulfur battery cell include: a 45% improvement in volumetric energy density, reaching 540Wh/l; higher gravimetric energy density of more than 400Wh/kg; and... Read more →

Stellantis Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Stellantis, has invested in materials innovation and applications company Lyten to accelerate the commercialization of Lyten 3D Graphene applications for the mobility industry, including the LytCell Lithium-Sulfur EV battery (earlier post), lightweighting composites, and novel on-board sensing. Lyten uses proprietary reactor technology which... Read more →

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have advanced lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery research by creating a redox-active interlayer within the battery that adds energy storage capacity while nearly eliminating a traditional problem with sulfur batteries. An open-access paper on their work was published in the journal Nature Communications. Lithium-sulfur batteries have theoretical... Read more →

Berlin-based Theion, a developer of lithium-sulfur cathode technology, appointed Dr. Ulrich Ehmes as CEO and announced the upcoming commercial availability of its Crystal Battery for applications, beginning with the aerospace sector. Dr. Ehmes, who has a long track record of industrializing battery production at companies such as Leclanché, will lead... Read more →

Lithium-sulfur batteries are prospects for future batteries as they are made from cheaper and more environmentally friendly materials than lithium-ion batteries. They also have higher energy storage capacity and work well at much lower temperatures. However, they suffer from short lifetimes and energy loss. A research group from Uppsala University... Read more →

Researchers at Drexel University have stabilized a rare monoclinic γ-sulfur phase within carbon nanofibers that enables successful operation of Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries in carbonate electrolyte for 4000 cycles. AN open-access paper on their work is published in Communications Chemistry. Carbonates are known to adversely react with the intermediate polysulfides and... Read more →

A University of Michigan team has shown that a network of aramid nanofibers, recycled from Kevlar, can enable lithium-sulfur batteries to overcome their Achilles heel of cycle life, delivering an estimated 1,000 real-world cycles. A paper on their work is published in Nature Communications. A diagram of the battery shows... Read more →

Australia-based Li-S Energy has entered into an agreement with Janus Electric to develop and to test lithium sulfur and/or lithium-metal battery cells to suit the requirements of the Janus Electric exchangeable prime mover battery packs. Janus Electric has developed a system to convert diesel powered prime mover fleets to electric... Read more →

Lyten, an advanced materials company, introduced its LytCell EV lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery platform. The technology is optimized for the electric vehicle market and is designed to deliver three times (3X) the gravimetric energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries. Lyten, which has just emerged from stealth mode, worked with the US... Read more →

Researchers from the Monash Energy Institute, with colleagues from CSIRO, have used a saccharide-based binder system to develop a durable sulfur cathode with minimal polysulfide escape in a lithium-sulfur battery. The saccharide-based binder system regulates polysulfides due to its reducing properties. The binder also promotes the formation of viscoelastic filaments... Read more →

UK-based OXIS Energy, a developer of Li-S battery technologies (earlier post), says it will deploy solid-state Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) cells and battery systems to its clients and partners worldwide by Autumn 2021 for use in trials, proof of concept and demonstrator battery systems for the Aviation, Marine, Defence and Heavy... Read more →

Scientists from Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Korea, have found that a new catalyst material can improve lithium–sulfur battery life significantly. A paper on the work is published in the journal ChemSusChem. Unlike conventional Li-ion batteries (LIBs), the Li-sulfur battery (LSB) reaction pathway leads to an accumulation of... Read more →

A team led by Professor Cheong Ying Chan at Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology (HKUST) Energy Institute, has proposed a novel cathode design concept for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery that substantially improves the performance of this kind of promising next-generation battery. A paper on their work is published in... Read more →

Yachts de Luxe (YdL) of Singapore has placed a commercial 10-year worldwide contract with OXIS Energy valued at $5 million to build the world’s first luxury boat to be powered by Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) battery cells and battery systems technology. The objective is to achieve a range between 70 and 100... Read more →

Scientists from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Korea, have developed a novel silica-based cathode for lithium–sulfur batteries, thereby enabling the realization of batteries that can last for more than 2,000 charge/discharge cycles. The possibility of successfully using the unconventional silica could spark a paradigm shift in rechargeable... Read more →

OXIS Energy and the Minas Gerais Development Company CODEMGE have signed a 15-year lease agreement with Mercedes Benz Brazil (MBB) to take possession of a plant located at the MBB manufacturing site in Juiz de Fora in southeast Brazil to build a Li-sulfur battery manufacturing operation. NORDIKA Pharmaceutical of Brazil... Read more →

Researchers at the University of Texas have discovered that introducing tellurium (Te) into a Li-Sulfur system as a cathode additive significantly improves the reversibility of Li plating/stripping by forming a tellurized and sulfide-rich solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer on the Li surface. The introduction of Te as a cathode additive in... Read more →

Researchers led by Prof. Jian Liu and Prof.Zhongshuai Wu from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed Fe1-xS-decorated mesoporous carbon spheres as a cathode material for lithium-sulfur batteries. Fe1−xS‐NC has a high specific surface area (627 m2 g−1), large pore volume (0.41... Read more →

Researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology in Japan have developed an active sulfur material and carbon nanofiber (S-CNF) composite material for all-solid-state Li-sulfur batteries using a low-cost and straightforward liquid phase process. In a paper published in the journal ACS Applied Energy Materials, they report that in an all-solid-state Li–S... Read more →

OXIS Energy has successfully tested its Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery cell prototypes at 471Wh/kg and is confident of achieving 500Wh/kg in the next 12 months. Consistently shipping cells at 400Wh/kg to its clients in Europe, the US and Japan, OXIS is collaborating with major European chemical partners to develop an advanced... Read more →

Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have developed a high-capacity, long-life lithium-sulfur battery using a bi-functional cathode substrate for Li–S batteries made of well-distributed boron carbide nanoparticles decorated activated cotton fiber (B4C-ACF). Long-term cycling test results of Li–S battery with S/B4C-ACF electrode at 1 C. Zhang... Read more →

Researchers at IBM and Daimler AG have used a quantum computer to model the dipole moment of three lithium-containing molecules, with an eye on moving closer to next-generation lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries. In a research paper published on arXiv.org, the researchers report simulating the ground state energies and the dipole... Read more →

An international team of researchers led by Monash University has developed an ultra-high capacity Li-S battery that has better performance and less environmental impact than current lithium-ion products. An open-access paper on their work is published in Science Advances. Lithium-sulfur batteries can displace lithium-ion by delivering higher specific energy. Presently,... Read more →

A team at the University of Manchester (UK) has developed a doped graphene cathode for highly stable lithium-sulfur batteries. In an open access paper in the Nature journal Communications Chemistry, they report 100% charge capacity of Li-S batteries using the cathode material with 500 charge/discharge cycles at 0.5 C, 1... Read more →

Researchers at Zhengzhou University, Tsinghua University and Stanford University have developed a solid-electrolyte-based liquid Li-S and Li-Se (SELL-S and SELL-Se, respectively) battery system with the potential to deliver energy densities exceeding 500 Wh kg-1 and and 1,000 Wh L-1, together with the ability of low-cost and stable electrochemical performance for... Read more →

To develop higher capacity batteries, researchers have looked to lithium-sulfur batteries because of sulfur’s high theoretical capacity and energy density. There are still several problems to solve before lithium-sulfur batteries can be put into widespread practical application—such as sulfur’s intrinsically low electrical conductivity and the rapid capacity decay caused by... Read more →

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) with colleagues at Gyeongsang National University (Korea) have used an ionic liquid (Py1,4TFSI) as an electrolyte additive to enable longer cycle-life of Li/S batteries. By tuning the concentration of the ionic liquid (IL), they demonstrated an enhanced stability of the SEI and lower... Read more →

A team of researchers from China and Germany have used azulene—a benzene-free and vinyl-free molecule—to polymerize with sulfur to create a cathode material for Li-S batteries. As described in an open-access paper in the RSC journal Chemical Communications,the polymer exhibits high sulfur content and offers longer lifetime stability compared to... Read more →

OXIS Energy will establish the first manufacturing plant for the production of electrolyte and cathode active material specifically for the mass production of lithium sulfur cells. The plant will be built at the Kenfig Industrial Estate Port Talbot in Wales. OXIS has signed a 15-year lease with United UK Real... Read more →

Researchers at Beihang University in Beijing have developed a linear molecule sulfur-rich organic material as sulfur cathode for a lithium-sulfur battery. The tetramethylthiuram disulfide-sulfur (TMTD-S) cathode material delivers an initial capacity of 685 mAh g−1 at 0.2C (1 C = 1061 mAh g−1) and maintains the capacity at 540 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles. Furthermore, when... Read more →

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have developed a free-standing reduced graphene oxide (r-GO) aerogel for use as a supporting electrode for the electrochemical redox reaction of sulfur in a catholyte-based lithium-sulfur battery. A mesoporous matrix is formed by a layers of r-GO, providing sites for electrochemical reactions and... Read more →

Researchers at MIT and in China are proposing a new class of dense intercalation-conversion hybrid cathodes by combining intercalation-type Mo6S8 with conversion-type sulfur (HMSC) to realize a Li–S full cell. In a paper in Nature Energy, the researchers report that the mechanically hard Mo6S8 with fast Li-ion transport ability, high... Read more →

PolyPlus Battery Company a privately-held company focused on the development of the first rechargeable Li metal battery with a ionically conductive glass separator, has entered into the first stage of a joint development agreement with SK Innovation Co. Ltd., Korea’s first and largest energy and chemical company. SK selected PolyPlus... Read more →

OXIS Energy Ltd UK has signed a contract with CODEMGE PARTICIPACOES SA, a public company incorporated in the city of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, to establish the world’s first digital manufacturing plant for the mass production of OXIS’ lithium-sulfur cells. OXIS Energy Brazil Holdings will... Read more →

A KAIST research team has developed ultra-stable, high-rate lithium-sulfur batteries (LSBs) by using hierarchically porous titanium nitride (h-TiN) as a sulfur host. In a paper in the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers report that h-TiN/S shows a reversible capacity of 557 mAh g−1 even after 1000 cycles at 5 C... Read more →

Safran acquired an equity interest in Li-Sulfur battery manufacturer OXIS Energy (earlier post) through its Safran Corporate Ventures subsidiary, which invests in disruptive technology businesses. OXIS Energy, a leader in lithium-sulfur cell technology for high energy density battery systems, has already been granted 173 patents with 96 pending. Benefiting from... Read more →