"Sila Nanotechnologies has developed a drop-in silicon-based anode that replaces graphite in lithium-ion batteries without requiring changes to the manufacturing process. The company claims that its materials can improve the energy density of batteries by 20% and has the potential to reach 40% improvement over traditional li-ion."
There has been a lot of research in to replacing the anode in lithium ion batteries with materials other than graphite. Some have been successful, but only to limited levels.
A pure silicon anode would be a huge step up in energy storage, but there are a ton of issues that need solving down this path.
Tesla has slowly been working towards integrating more and more silicon in to their anodes. They announced plans to try and do effectively what SilaNano is doing here at their "battery day" last year, so it is a pretty big deal that they are pulling it off in a production battery.
Its not pure silicon. Its a silicon composite particle. The difference between other commercial silicons (like that in every Tesla) is that you not combining silicon (silicon oxide usually) with graphite.
The problem is we don't actually know what is in Sila Nanoparticles, but I am pretty sure its not 100% silicon.
Correct. Tesla, and many others, are working on similar concepts where it is silicon nano particles encapsulated with some other material. I'm betting that's what SilaNano is doing.
This, in theory, allows the silicon to expand without cracking, which has been the major issue with silicon anodes so far.
No, Tesla is actually not using Composite Nano particles.
They are using micro particles that are coated with a polymer and then mixed with graphite and a binder.
This is quite different. In that version you contain the silicon expansion not by having complex composite particle but rather by having the polymer contain the cracking.
Sila on the other hand is creating a more complex silicon particle that is partly empty and can expand without cracking. They have not released a picture, but Talga resources has a silicon composite product and they have a picture:
No. Enovix beat them to market (seemingly by just a few months) with a 100% silicon anode. These two companies will change the world, the only question will be is it Enovix (which makes whole batteries) or Sila (which only makes anode materials).
What matters is how good your batteries are compared to price and at what scale. What combination of silicon/graphite or other materials is used doesn't really matter.
I for one am more exited about Tesla mixing metallic silicon with graphite, rather then these complex composite particles. I think that will be much easier to scale.
It's hard to say really. Nickel-cadmium refer to the electrodes, but lithium ion refers to the electrolyte, and lead-acid refers to both the lead electrodes and the acid electrolyte. Switching out the electrode may qualify as a new chemistry, although 'fundamentally new' might be a stretch.
No. If they had a real breakthrough, they wouldn't be selling it in a fitness wristband.
There are many "solid state battery" companies. Solid Power, QuantumScape, Ampicera, ProLogium. Toyota. ProLogium seems to be the only one actually shipping a battery, but the technology seems to be getting close to working. The next generation of batteries should not have the thermal runaway/catches fire if damaged problem.
I don't think this is a valid argument against this being a real breakthrough. The first major production lithium ion batteries were for Sony camcorders.
Not all that different from wearables, and obviously lithium ion batteries were a pretty major breakthrough.
Indeed. All breakthrough techs initially suck. They're a shitty, borderline-useless, but FUNCTIONAL breakthrough. And that's really the thing - they might be a joke, but if they do work, and if they're just barely usable for some niche product (specifically in some new space that other solutions were not really viable for), then the giant deathball of applied corporate R&D starts rolling on them.
SSDs are probably the absolute bellweather of this, since their early forms held mere kilobytes. They were uniquely useful because they were non-volatile, and immune(-ish) to the kinds of shaking disruptions that befoul magnetic media (usually via head crashes).
The thing about these things is the corporate R&D deathball. Once it gets rolling, they can breed a mouse to be the size of an elephant. The more profound/insight-driven challenge lies in getting that initial mouse, and getting that initial foothold of a market opportunity.
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Batteries of course were another great example. The reason we have viable electric cars, instead of trashy ones with a 20-mile range, is entirely thanks to the consumer electronics industry (broadly including power tools, etc). They needed batteries and paid for the R&D. Fast forward 25 years, and "the best we can do" jumped from a 20-mile range, to a 250-mile range.
Anything that has radios in it, such as devices with bluetooth, are going to see peak currents in the amps.
I've designed and worked on a number of devices that are very similar to these wrist bands. The typical modes are uA draw for long sleep periods, 10s of mA while collecting data/doing whatever for milliseconds, and 500mA to 2 or 3A for a few hundred ms every once in a while to transmit data.
So low ESR, high power capable batteries are very desirable for this sort of device. Especially when you consider that 2A draw is likely around 20C out of a wearable battery!
Please point me to one of devices you worked on that is wearable and draws 3A when transmitting. I would also love to see a BLE device with power consumption in the amps, especially considering TX power limits in the standard. Its normal for Class 3 BLE radio to consume same current when transmitting as when receiving (in <20mA range).
"Sila Nanotechnologies has developed a drop-in silicon-based anode that replaces graphite in lithium-ion batteries without requiring changes to the manufacturing process. The company claims that its materials can improve the energy density of batteries by 20% and has the potential to reach 40% improvement over traditional li-ion."