Ion Storage Systems Boasts of Lithium-Ion-Beating Solid-State Battery Tech
A clever ultra-thin three-layer ceramic electrolyte could give future batteries a major boost in capacity, charge times, and safety.
Startup Ion Storage Systems claims it has a method for creating solid-state batteries with considerably higher energy density than their lithium-ion equivalents: an ultra-thin ceramic electrolyte, measuring just 10 micrometers in thickness.
Battery capacity is a blocker for a great many designs. Mainstream electric vehicles really only became possible when energy densities reached the point that they wouldn't need to be charged every 50 or so miles, but still have a long way to go before they can compete with a full tank of gas; wearable electronics are becoming ever-more complex and powerful, but their small sizes typically lead to a very limited battery life.
Startup Ion Storage Systems is one company among many working on the problem, and believes it has a solution: New solid-state batteries with an ultra-thin, low-resistance three-layer solid-state lithium-oxide ceramic electrolyte. Sandwiched between porous ceramic coating in aluminium oxide, the material is claimed to beat the best of the competition — including in charging time, which could be as low as five to ten minutes for a full charge.
"It really comes down to the unique structure and interfacial treatments that allow us to get very low resistance," company co-founder Eric Wachsman tells IEEE Spectrum on the technology. “High resistance has been the hang up for solid-state batteries.”
According to figures released by the company, the prototypes that have come out of the project — which started at the University of Maryland Energy Innovation Institute — have somewhere around 300Wh/kg energy capacity, already comfortably above the 250Wh/kg of equivalent lithium-ion batteries.
More information is available on the company's website, or in the IEEE Spectrum article.