SBIR-STTR Award

Advanced batteries require novel low-cost safe materials to charge faster last longer and work at wide-ranging temperatures. Currently dominant lithium-ion batteries use imported critical minerals leading to a national effort to improve supply chains. Proposed domestic green solutions for carbon-based anodes address this issue. The project objectives are to: 1.) develop and optimize methods to synthesize a new patented material graphene monoxide (GmO) using high purity bio- sourced products; 2.) evaluate the properties of these ECOphiteTM materials; and 3.) prepare anodes and test batteries to compare performance with batteries made with anode materials derived from inorganic carbon sources. The goals are to improve cost-performance and environmental impact of carbon-based anodes. The main effort in Phase I is to evaluate several bio-renewable products as feedstocks for ECOphite materials with special attention to micronutrient and contaminant impact on formation of GmO and battery performance. Big-data analysis e.g. materials informatics and machine learning will be used to optimize the quality and quantity of ECOphite materials production and correlate material properties with battery performance. With successful demonstration of ECOphite production from forestry- and farm -products the cost performance and carbon balance of batteries will be improved. This will enable the commercial promise of batteries for many applications including power tools drones electric motorcycles consumer electronics cars and stationary power. Replacing graphite with ECOphite material will address the critical minerals initiative increasing options for domestically- sourced anode solutions. The results will encourage battery manufacturers to adopt this novel material for manufacturing future anodes for batteries.