UK firms partner to optimize battery technology using carbon nanotubes

Johnson Matthey (JM) has teamed up with CPI and Thomas Swan to explore how to best optimize battery technology. The ICE-Batt project, which receives funding support from the Faraday Battery Challenge, will investigate how carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) can improve battery performance. Ultimately this could lead to improvements in energy density, power density and low-temperature performance of lithium-ion batteries. The project will also explore ways to improve the green credentials of battery processing.

ICE-Batt will combine Thomas Swan’s GNP technology, CPI’s formulation expertise and JM’s battery materials.

ICE-Batt will fine-tune these new carbon structures, which are produced at an industrial scale by Thomas Swan, and demonstrate how they can enhance the overall performance of traditional lithium-ion and next generation batteries such as JM’s family of nickel-rich cathode materials eLNO and LIFE POWER LFP.

JM Principal Scientist and ICE-Batt Project Leader Dr. Ross Gordon said, “Innovative carbons are widely reported to enhance the performance of batteries. The ICE-Batt collaboration brings together leaders in their fields to optimize the innovative carbons and understand how best to integrate these with JM battery materials.”