General Motors and Forge Nano has co-developed ALD technology for lithium batteries

According to recent news releases General Motors and Forge Nano has co-developed and been rewarded for ALD for lithium battery technology featuring:

• ultrathin (thickness < 5nm) multifunctional hybrid coatings and processes.
• solutions to critical issues involved with gas generation, manganese dissolution induced capacity loss and safety issue associated with polymeric separators.
• scale-up production and commercialization of this innovation for both automotive and non-automotive applications.
• semi-continuous ALD systems (the tall pilot-scale stack, as well as the large single-cycle stack), have the production capacity of more than 1 MT/day, making it possible to implement the advanced surface coating technologies into the next generation of lithium ion batteries.

 

Background information:

LOUISVILLE, CO - Forge Nano, Louisville, Colorado, recently won a 2017 R&D 100 Award as co-developer with General Motors for the development of the Ultrathin Multifunctional Hybrid Coatings and Processes. The R&D 100 Awards have served as an innovation awards program for the past 55 years, honoring great R&D pioneers and their revolutionary ideas in science and technology.

“Forge Nano was founded with a vision to deploy precision nano-coatings to make many other technologies safer, less expensive and more efficient. That vision is now a reality, and it is extremely gratifying to be honored by the R&D 100 Awards for introducing one of 2017’s most innovative and influential technology solutions,” said Forge Nano Founder and CEO Dr. Paul Lichty, who accepted the award at the R&D 100 Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Forge Nano launched in 2013 with breakthrough technology that makes nano-coatings fast, affordable and scalable in manufacturing. The company specializes in nano-coatings and atomic film deposition, serving functions from corrosion resistance to electrical insulation or conduction. As demands for next-generation materials become more and more extreme, nano-engineered surface coatings can fulfill the need for enhanced properties and precise characteristics.

The R&D 100 Award - Ultrathin multifunctional hybrid coatings and processes (LINK)

The majority of battery failure initiates from active material surfaces in the electrodes. Surface coatings, as an effective mitigating strategy, have been widely applied into battery material manufacturing process to protect active materials. Conventional coating technologies, such as chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition and wet chemistry, typically generate non-uniform coating particularly on nano-sized particles. The thickness control becomes difficult, and the thicker coating typically induce high much impedance. To tackle this challenge, General Motors—a pioneer in applying surface coating using the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique—has developed several Ultrathin multifunctional hybrid coatings and processes. These ultrathin (thickness < 5nm) multifunctional coatings solve critical issues involved with gas generation, manganese dissolution induced capacity loss and safety issue associated with polymeric separators. Forge Nano has developed the technologies that enable scale-up production and commercialization of this innovation for both automotive and non-automotive applications. Their semi-continuous ALD systems (the tall pilot-scale stack, as well as the large single-cycle stack), have the production capacity of more than 1 MT/day, making it possible to implement the advanced surface coating technologies into the next generation of lithium ion batteries.