XABC (Xerion Advanced Battery Corp) proposes a novel anode with three unique features, each designed to 1) control or 2) prevent dendrite growth. The first feature is a 95% porous electrode architecture. This electrode is an open-cell, nanostructured conductive foam whose internal structures are conformal coated with lithium metal. Dendrites growing outward from an internal pore surface will propagate until they come into contact with an opposing wall inside the foam and further growth is mechanically frustrated. This prevents dendrites from propagating external to the anode, as the dendrites would be trapped within the structure of the foam. The second feature is a five micron mask that, when applied to the surface of the 3d foam, prevents electrodeposition of lithium metal near the surface of the electrode, hence preventing growth of lithium dendrites near the surface. The third feature is a novel, highly conductive ionic fluid rigid-rod polymer composite expected to achieve a conductivity of 8.3x10^-3 S/cm^2. This polymer has already demonstrated protonic conductivity of 8.3x10^-3 S/cm^2 and must be modified for use in a lithium ion battery. Rigid-rod polymers have a tensile modulus that is 37x – 62x stronger than a standard polyethelyene solid polymer electrolyte. This strength may physically deter or altogether prevent the growth of lithium dendrites. XABC believes that the novel combination of these three unique features will enable the stable cycling of lithium metal in a secondary cell. For Phase I, XABC proposes to fabricate and test the effect of both the polymer and masked 3d foam on dendrite suppression. For Phase II, XABC proposes to fabricate fully functioning negative electrodes with the features above.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) NASA is unique to the government in the fact that its mission takes it into a celestial operating environment that is inherently difficult to navigate. This environment is extremely hazardous, contains a variety of reactive oxidants, highly energetic radiation, rapidly moving debris and the like. This places stringent requirements on all components NASA chooses for its missions, and these components govern or limit the extent to which NASA can operate in such an environment. A secondary battery with a net energy density greater than 500 Wh/kg and stable performance past 500 cycles would significantly extend NASA's mission capability. Given design constraints, an energy dense battery would be smaller and allow for the deployment of larger, more complex sensors. More importantly, the use of a strong solid electrolyte would significantly increase the safety of the battery, allowing it to be deployed as a critical component. Should the battery fail, the solid polymer would help prevent damage to other equipment and reduce potential for personal injury. NASA is currently planning on deploying lithium ion batteries onto the ISS to replace its aging nickel-hydrogen cells (Clark 2013). The Hubble telescope also uses nickel-hydrogen cells. Li-ion batteries w/ 500 Wh/kg would increase lifetime, which would result in significant cost savings to due a reduction in space walks. Such a cell would also reduce operational risk when deployed on probes, rovers and the like.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) There are many potential markets where XABC can have an impact, which include consumer electronics, server farms, power tools, grid backup, military, medical, robotics and others. From a value perspective, XABC will try to satisfy as many of those markets as practical during product design decisions. XABC cannot focus on all markets initially, so it will create products for markets that stand to benefit most from StructurePore™ technology. Considering this, XABC will focus on applications of high desirability in three of the many potential market segments: 1) Military, DoD and NASA applications where enhanced performance at a much lower weight is highly desirable. 2) Portable electronic devices especially in the rapidly growing mobility market for laptops, netbooks, tablets and phones. 3) Automotive application for electric, gasoline hybrid, and fuel cell hybrid vehicles.Many secondary battery applications, like PHEVs, consumer electronics and NASA, are very sensitive to safety and reliability. To enter into such markets with a secondary lithium metal battery, the product must first be refined and adopted by markets that have more inherent risk tolerance, like the DoD, robotics and hobby markets. XABC is working with leading members of the remote control vehicle market to supply them with high power, high-energy batteries. XABC would work in tandem with NASA during the development of its commercial cells to optimize the design of its commercial cell to NASA's needs.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Processing Methods Storage
