Battery Materials and Components

Your Strategic Partner in Battery Material Innovation: The Fraunhofer R&D Center for Electromobility Bavaria

At the Fraunhofer R&D Center for Electromobility Bavaria, we are committed to driving the future of sustainable energy. As your strategic partner, we specialize in the development, testing, and precise optimization of advanced battery materials and components for lithium-ion, sodium-ion, solid-state and lead-acid batteries. Our comprehensive R&D services cater to a diverse range of industries, including battery material suppliers, electrode and battery manufacturers, and battery recyclers.
By collaborating with us, you gain access to state-of-the-art facilities and a team of experts dedicated to pioneering solutions that meet the evolving demands of the battery sector.
 

Whether you're looking to enhance the performance of existing products or innovate new technologies, our tailored services ensure you stay ahead in the competitive market.

You can find out more about the various research tasks and battery developments in our project examples and publications.

Sustainable and high-performance solid-state electrolytes address a clear need in battery R&D. The FUNCY-SSB project will develop sustainable by design solid-state electrolytes with enhanced electrochemical performance.

Project FUNCY-SSB

The INERRANT project is committed to pushing the boundaries of current LIB technologies by focusing on the development of innovative material combinations, advanced electrolyte formulations, and eco-friendly recycling methods that prioritise safety and recyclability. This holistic approach targets the entire battery lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to end-of-life recycling.

Project INERRANT

Aqueous processing of state-of-the-art cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries like LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂ (NMC811) has evolved as a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to the conventional 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone-based process. However, the implementation of aqueous processing is challenging due to the water sensitivity of nickel-rich layered oxides. This study investigates the influence of a phosphate-based NMC811 surface coating on the performance of aqueous-processed NMC811 cathodes in 3 Ah cells. The results show that the cells with phosphate-coated NMC811 outperform those with uncoated NMC811, i. e., they exhibited higher initial capacity and improved capacity retention during cycling. Post-mortem characterization techniques reveal that the phosphate coating limits the lithium loss during aqueous cathode manufacturing and further reduces side reactions during cycling, resulting in a smaller increase of cell impedance.

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The NaKlaR project is developing solutions for the remaining challenges that will lead to sustainable sodium-ion-batteries with improved electrochemical performance.

Project NaKlaR

The development of solid-state lithium-ion batteries is a promising step to meet the increasing demand for safe batteries with a high energy density. In this work, silicon electrodes containing an organic/inorganic hybrid polymer electrolyte (HPE) are reported. Depending on the conducting salt and the inclusion of an ionic liquid (IL), the HPE exhibits an ionic conductivity between 0.24 ± 0.11 mS cm⁻¹ and 0.94 ± 0.07 mS cm⁻¹ at 60 °C. The achievable capacity in Si/HPE/Li cells depends strongly on the C-rate and the areal capacity of the electrodes, as well as on the electrolyte and electrode composition. Among the cells tested, those with an HPE containing lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI) and no IL exhibit the highest capacity retention and average coulombic efficiency. The use of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) and/or the addition of an IL enables higher electrode loadings, however at the expense of capacity retention. Si electrodes with a higher Si content show an improved cell performance compared to those with less Si. A combination of electrodes containing 75 wt% silicon with an HPE with LiFSI and IL reaches a high capacity of approx. 1500 mA h g_Si⁻¹ at 0.1 C with a capacity retention of 74% after 100 cycles.

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The vision of RESPECT project is to contribute to paving the way for increasing global competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and circularity of the European battery ecosystem by developing innovative green recycling and materials recovery processes, and thus supporting the growing Li-ion battery manufacturing in Europe.

Project Respect

This study compares two electrode architectures, one with a porous carbon current collector (PC) and the other with a state-of-the-art aluminum foil current collector (AF). The results show that the porous carbon outperforms the aluminum foil at high loadings (∼8 mAh/cm²) during cycling, likely due to better adhesion. The characterization methods used in the study include electrochemical cycling, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These methods provide insight into the performance of the two electrode architectures and allow for a comprehensive comparison between them. The findings of this study indicate that the use of porous carbon as a current collector can lead to improved performance in high-loading electrode applications, making it a promising alternative to traditional aluminum foil current collectors.

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Lithium-ion batteries require in addition to lithium metal a number of sophisticated functional materials for their performance. Some of them sound rather unspectacular: conductive additives. In fact, conductive additives like carbon black or carbon nanotubes are a decisive component for the performance and environmental benignity of lithium-ion batteries. The recently launched collaborative project HiQ-CARB aims to provide new carbons with a superior performance and a low carbon footprint for future green batteries in Europe. HiQ-CARB is receiving EU funding from EIT RawMaterials to scale up and validate this important battery material.

Project HiQ-CARB

The influence of external pressure on lithium-ion cells containing a silicon anode is investigated. The performance of pouch-type full cells under rigid compression is compared to unconstrained cells, where the electrode stack is allowed to swell during cycling. The negative electrode contains only silicon as active material, while prelithiated lithium titanium oxide (LTO) is used as the positive electrode. The results show that the main failure mechanism in such cells is a continuous irreversible consumption of lithium ions, likely due to repeated solid electrolyte interphase breakage and reformation. At high pressures, the lithium depletion has a larger influence than at lower pressures. This effect is examined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as dilation measurements of flexibly-constrained cells and can be traced back to an increase of the ionic pore resistance being more pronounced under high pressure. A new approach is used to compensate the lithium loss, i.e. internal relithiation of the LTO electrode via a lithium reservoir. This not only proves the theory of irreversible lithium consumption being the main challenge in these cells, but also enables cycling for 1000 cycles at 1200 mAh without capacity fading.

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The EU project BIG-MAP (Battery Interface Genome – Materials Acceleration Platform), aims at accelerating the speed of battery development by changing the way of inventing, so that future sustainable and ultra-high-performance batteries can be developed 10 times faster than today. Using machine-learning algorithms coupled with physical models and data it will – for example – be possible to predict the durability of a new battery in a fraction of the time it has taken so far. This can be done through large-scale computer simulations, experiments and tests that are continuously evaluated without human intervention. The Fraunhofer R&D Center Electromobility at the Fraunhofer ISC contributes its knowledge concerning laboratory automation for material synthesis and development. „In the BIG MAP project we will develop a modular robot system starting with the synthesis of protective coating materials. Our ambition is to have this framework acting as a physical interface in the more and more digitized materials development of the future“, says Dr. Henning Lorrmann, Head of the Fraunhofer R&D Center Electromobility.

Project BIG-MAP

The main components and, most notably, the concentration of the non-aqueous electrolyte solution have not significantly changed since the commercialization of Li-ion batteries in the early 1990s. However, the quest for electrochemical energy storage systems with high-energy content has driven researchers to reconsider the suitability of the “standard” one molar concentration and look toward highly concentrated electrolyte solutions. However, the interplay between the fundamental electrolyte properties and the cell performance is not consistent with what would be expected based only on the electrolyte ionic conductivity. Here, the recent progress and future perspectives on the correlation between the physicochemical properties of non-standard electrolyte solutions and their ability to improve the energy storage performances of lithium-based batteries are discussed.

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The EU-funded project, named ASTRABAT, aims to develop optimal lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery solutions for the increasing demands of the electric vehicle market in particular. The goal is to fulfil Europe’s need for a safe, high-energy, sustainable and marketable battery for green mobility that could be manufactured in Europe on a massive scale. As society turns to electric vehicles, this challenge has now become acute, with Asian competitors well ahead in the game.

Project ASTRABAT