Scientific American discusses the lithium batteries of Sakti3,
Within a post titled Secretive Company Claims Battery Breakthrough , one finds text about trade secrets:
Avestor used a polymer separator to replace the electrolyte in its batteries. We don’t know what Sakti3 is using—that’s a trade secret. The composition of the positive electrode also remains a secret; Sastry says it is nothing unusual—“a very well understood electrochemistry.” We do know that, like most of the promising post-lithium-ion battery chemistries identified so far, the Sakti3 battery has a metallic-lithium anode, or negative electrode.
But in the comments section, one has
Looks like they have substantial investment in patent protection. They seem to have plenty of resources. It would be interesting to know what level of vacuum is needed. Manufacturing under vacuum would reduce contamination. Since they are not resource limited, designing to manufacture in a vacuum chamber shouldn't be a deal breaker. Sounds like they might pull it off.
In fact, there are 24 published US applications including the word --Sakti3 --.
In US 20120058380 , there is discussion of an electrolyte material:
[0015] In a specific embodiment, the solid-state glassy electrolyte of this electrochemical cell device comprises amorphous lithiated oxynitride phosphorus with ionic conductivity ranging from 10.sup.-5 to 10.sup.-4 S/m. The ionic conductivity of glassy electrolyte can be tuned by the nitrogen concentration and evaporation process conditions. This glassy electrolyte material can be configured as an electrolyte overlying the cathode electrode material. This glassy electrolyte material is capable of shuttling lithium ions during a charge process and a discharge process, and is characterized with layer thickness between about 0.1 and about 1 micrometers.
US 20140072837 mentions ceramic separators:
[0031] The results of the invention are a solid state battery that has energy density above 300 Wh/L. Although this has been achieved using some battery systems that are designed with liquid or gel electrolytes, no solid state batteries with ceramic electrolytes have come close to achieving this level of energy density. Furthermore, the ceramic electrolytes and the design that is employed by Sakti3 eliminates the occurrence of lithium dendrites and other undesirable side reactions that occurs between the liquid or gel electrolyte and the battery materials in conventional wound lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the solid ceramic electrolyte that is utilized in this invention also eliminates the occurrence of internal short circuits that are a major failure mechanism in lithium-ion battery cells that utilize a polymer separator.
[0054] The potential benefits of solid state batteries with ceramic separators have been discussed for over a decade, but to date few have truly commercialized this product. One challenge that plagued the commercialization of this product is the development of product design parameters with high levels of performance. Another challenge that has not been previously overcome is the development of a roll-to-roll production process that is required to make larger format-sized (greater than 1/10.sup.th amp-hour) solid state batteries and winding them and packaging them in a format that can power products that require greater than a micro-amp of electrical current.
Avestor used a polymer separator to replace the electrolyte in its batteries. We don’t know what Sakti3 is using—that’s a trade secret. The composition of the positive electrode also remains a secret; Sastry says it is nothing unusual—“a very well understood electrochemistry.” We do know that, like most of the promising post-lithium-ion battery chemistries identified so far, the Sakti3 battery has a metallic-lithium anode, or negative electrode.
But in the comments section, one has
Looks like they have substantial investment in patent protection. They seem to have plenty of resources. It would be interesting to know what level of vacuum is needed. Manufacturing under vacuum would reduce contamination. Since they are not resource limited, designing to manufacture in a vacuum chamber shouldn't be a deal breaker. Sounds like they might pull it off.
In fact, there are 24 published US applications including the word --Sakti3 --.
In US 20120058380 , there is discussion of an electrolyte material:
[0015] In a specific embodiment, the solid-state glassy electrolyte of this electrochemical cell device comprises amorphous lithiated oxynitride phosphorus with ionic conductivity ranging from 10.sup.-5 to 10.sup.-4 S/m. The ionic conductivity of glassy electrolyte can be tuned by the nitrogen concentration and evaporation process conditions. This glassy electrolyte material can be configured as an electrolyte overlying the cathode electrode material. This glassy electrolyte material is capable of shuttling lithium ions during a charge process and a discharge process, and is characterized with layer thickness between about 0.1 and about 1 micrometers.
US 20140072837 mentions ceramic separators:
[0031] The results of the invention are a solid state battery that has energy density above 300 Wh/L. Although this has been achieved using some battery systems that are designed with liquid or gel electrolytes, no solid state batteries with ceramic electrolytes have come close to achieving this level of energy density. Furthermore, the ceramic electrolytes and the design that is employed by Sakti3 eliminates the occurrence of lithium dendrites and other undesirable side reactions that occurs between the liquid or gel electrolyte and the battery materials in conventional wound lithium-ion batteries. Additionally, the solid ceramic electrolyte that is utilized in this invention also eliminates the occurrence of internal short circuits that are a major failure mechanism in lithium-ion battery cells that utilize a polymer separator.
[0054] The potential benefits of solid state batteries with ceramic separators have been discussed for over a decade, but to date few have truly commercialized this product. One challenge that plagued the commercialization of this product is the development of product design parameters with high levels of performance. Another challenge that has not been previously overcome is the development of a roll-to-roll production process that is required to make larger format-sized (greater than 1/10.sup.th amp-hour) solid state batteries and winding them and packaging them in a format that can power products that require greater than a micro-amp of electrical current.
posted by Lawrence B. Ebert at 2:48 PM
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