In this presentation, we will review consumer-driven market requirements for fast-charge, brake regeneration, low-temperature operation, and related challenges that must be met before lithium metal anodes can capably displace graphite-based anodes – let alone combustion engines – as the dominant vehicle motive technology.  We will review Sepion’s innovation around separators and liquid electrolytes required for commercial adoption of Li-metal anodes.  Finally, we will show how this technology has the potential to unlock the trifecta of greater energy density, faster charging, and lower cost by delivering innovations around separators and liquid electrolytes required for commercial adoption of Li-metal anodes.

The community has focused on building nanocomposites of sulfur to provide electronic conductivity, confinement of soluble polysulfides, and faster kinetics with various catalytic agents. Yet these approaches face increasing challenges in the case of lean electrolytes due to the need to facilitate the reaction through the dissolution mechanism.

This presentation discusses the development of new electrolyte chemistries for enhanced electrochemical performance, and new tools for studying solvation structures.

Sakuu has completed the development of its Cypress lithium-metal battery showing high-energy density, high power, highest safety, best cycle life, and availability for licensing to manufacturers. Sakuu's industrial speed dry process 3D printing enables significant cost savings and the world's first 3D-printed patterned Li-metal batteries, allowing increased battery pack energy densities from consumer industry products to automotive EV.

As we begin the transition from fossil fuel dependency to clean and renewable-based energy, the world needs proven, dependable and tangible examples of sustainable products. Kurt Kelty will discuss how innovative drop-in-replacement nanocomposite, silicon-based anode powder enables up to 20% more energy density today over state-of-the-art lithium-ion cells with graphite, without performance compromise. This material is shipping today and is ready to scale to meet larger demand and power EVs by the middle of this decade.

The Enovix stacked cell architecture, which uses a silicon anode, upends the conventional paradigm and enables both an increase in energy density, and a high level of abuse tolerance to reduce the risks of an internal short due to its BrakeFlow technology. With BrakeFlow incorporated, instead of a sudden catastrophic release of energy, the battery is designed to discharge safely and slowly.

Binders and structural additives constitute the smallest fraction of anode compositions, yet they are critically important to achieve long cycle life. This is particularly relevant for silicon containing anodes where SiOx, Si/C or Si materials are used to increase anode storage capacity. While binder chemistries have been evolving over the past years, structural additives such as AnteoTech’s binder additive, Anteo X, or carbon additives present new strategies that aim to minimize inactive materials, yet propelling silicon anodes forward by 100s of cycles.

This talk will introduce a new class of cathode materials to the battery community; the Stratus Materials "LXMO" product line will be explained, and results from large-format (>5Ah) full cells demonstrating a full suite of materials capabilities will be shared. The data show that this chemistry can outperform nickel-rich cathodes while costing significantly less and having superior safety characteristics.

Recent years have seen monumental and exciting developments in the field of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). Despite its promises, they still face a multitude of technical hurdles before commercialization can be achieved. In this talk, I will provide a perspective on a wide range of scalability challenges and considerations for ASSBs, including solid electrolyte synthesis, dry electrode and separator processing, cell assembly, and stack pressure considerations at the module level.

Hydro-Quebec is actively developing a new-generation lithium metal anode technology, named as UTFL2.0, which is designed to provide a higher volumetric energy density at a significantly reduced cost. UTLF2.0 exhibits compatibility with both liquid and solid electrolytes, offering flexible adaptability to control thickness and width without compromising productivity through a high-speed roll-to-roll process. This presentation will demonstrate the key features of UTLF2.0 and introduce the polymer and sulfide-based solid-state batteries under development by Hydro-Quebec by leveraging the advanced UTLF technologies and new solid-electrolyte families.

The lithium ion conductivity of sulfide solid electrolytes is unbeaten, and their mechanical properties allow roll-to-roll procesing. Interface issues can be overcome by interlayer and coating design, and the evolution of H2S can be mitigated by chemical design. In this presentation, the current status of sulfide-based SSBs and the recent development of halide solid electrolytes will be briefly discussed, as well as the potential need for targeted design of cathode active materials for SSBs.

The Tesla-Dalhousie research partnership on long-lived, high-energy density and low-cost batteries for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage is the only academic research partnership of Tesla worldwide. In this contribution we will present impactful research results from this partnership that recently attracted widespread attention: the elimination of reversible self-discharge in lithium-ion cells and sodium-ion cells with lifetimes that rival modern lithium iron phosphate cells.