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A successful production trial by Nano-Nouvelle is said to have proved its nanotechnology supports industrial-scale manufacture, with output rates 100 times faster.
The Sunshine Coast-based company is developing nanotechnology that can boost the energy storage capacity of lithium ion batteries by as much as 50 per cent. Lithium ion batteries are used in devices ranging from mobile phones and notebooks to and electric vehicles and home energy storage systems.
Nano-Nouvelle has worked with companies worldwide to ensure its battery-boosting breakthrough is usable with today’s production lines.
In November 2016, Nano-Nouvelle completed its first roll-to-roll production trial, which saw UK manufacturing company Cemco successfully run a roll of raw membrane through a chemical plating process to produce a roll of copper-plated Lumafoil, one of several products designed by Nano-Nouvelle.
Copper Lumafoil is a three-dimensional porous material developed by Nano-Nouvelle to replace solid metal foil current collectors, which conduct stored electricity to an outside circuit. Copper Lumafoil weighs as much as 70 per cent less than existing current collectors used in lithium ion batteries.
Nano-Nouvelle CEO Stephanie Moroz said the successful roll-to-roll trial was at least 100 times faster than the company’s original manual plating process with equivalent quality. “This is huge win for us,” she said.
“This is the first time we have proved that our technology can be made in a mass production process. We can now produce rolls of the material for larger batteries to be used in customer field trials,” says Moroz. “Demonstrating that our nanostructure can be produced on a commercially viable production line gives us a route to full-scale production that other forms of nanotechnology can only dream of.”
Battery manufacturers that Nano-Nouvelle has briefed on the process are equally impressed. “We have seen many 3D material concepts but you are the first to demonstrate roll-to-roll processing,” said one Asian-based battery manufacturer who did not wish to be named. “We are very impressed.”