PALO ALTO, California, June 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --OneD Material announces the grant of a new Japanese patent (JP 6142362) covering a new composition and improved manufacturing process for making SiNANOde', its innovative silicon-graphite active materials for high energy density lithium-ion batteries.
This newly granted patent is an important milestone in a long journey started in 2001 when Nanosys (OneD's predecessor company) was formed and exclusively licensed certain foundational nanotechnology inventions from Harvard and Berkeley universities.
In the following years, Nanosys' R&D team worked on new nanostructures for fuel cells and lithium-ion battery electrodes and filed seminal patent applications describing interconnected networks of silicon nanowires and graphitic materials for use in electrodes (for example: WO 2006/062947 and WO 2007/061945, based on applications filed in 2004 and 2005).
Under the leadership of Dr. Yimin Zhu, OneD's Chief Technology Officer, various silicon-graphite materials and processes were perfected over many years and tested by large battery makers around the world.
In late 2013, OneD Material acquired the R&D team, facility, pilot production line and all nanowire-related intellectual property assets from Nanosys which elected to focus on commercializing quantum dots for displays, becoming a global leader in that market.
In 2014, OneD's customer EaglePicher won a US Department of Defense Title 3 Award and licensed OneD's manufacturing process to produce SiNANOde' in a new recently completed 100,000 square feet manufacturing facility in Joplin, Missouri.
OneD continues to develop innovations and to focus its R&D efforts on four key objectives: (1) increasing SiNANOde' capacity retention over longer number of cycles; (2) increasing SiNANOde' energy density with higher silicon/graphite ratios; (3) decreasing SiNANOde' manufacturing costs; and (4) enabling larger production scale-up, to meet the future needs of battery makers supplying the Consumer Electronics and EV market segments.
The newly granted patent is part of a portfolio of recently filed patent applications resulting from those R&D efforts, that will protect OneD and its customers over the next two decades (see for example WO 2013/016339).
"We look forward to continue working with industrial partners worldwide to produce silicon-graphite active materials for high-energy density lithium-ion batteries," said Vincent Pluvinage, OneD's CEO.
For more information, see www.onedmaterial.com
