AUTOMAT SOLUTIONS INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 12a

Description

The advancement of electric drive vehicle batteries is crucial for improving transportation energy efficiency. Batteries using highcapacity lithium metal anode hold promise due to their high energy densities to extend driving range and lower costs. Currently, an advanced electrolyte is urgently needed to stabilize lithium metal anode for longer battery life. In this project, a novel class of highenergydensity batteries will be developed by dropping lithium metal anode into conventional lithiumion battery, enabled by an advanced liquid electrolyte. The development process employs a closedloop machine learning and highthroughput robotic experimentation workflow, which allows for an efficient search of the vast chemical and material space for possible electrolytes. This interdisciplinary approach will produce advanced liquid electrolytes offering longer cycle life and lower cost in a more efficient manner than the currently employed Edisonian processes. The technical and commercial feasibility have been proven. A promising electrolyte with improved properties and cell performance were discovered. The battery cycle life was increased to projected 1409 cycles from 96 cycles thanks to the improvements on electrolyte lithium coulombic efficiency 98.2%, voltage window 4.5 V, and ionic conductivity 8 mS/cm. An invention disclosure has been submitted. The electrolyte discovery was made possible in a search space of 28 electrolyte ingredients by the machine learning and robotics workflow, which has demonstrated high electrolyte predictionactual data correlation of 98.6%, accurate early cycle prediction on cell performance 82.6% accuracy, and a highthroughput 512 testing samples per month. Through customer discovery efforts, an electrolyte purchase order was received from a battery company. In Phase 2, a highperformance electrolyte will be achieved by closedloop screening ≥1000 unique electrolyte formulations using the machine learning and robotics workflow and by further validating it in ≥2 Ah large format cells. The electrolyte production will be scaled up to 10 kilograms/batch. Both the electrolyte product and its customers will be ready for commercial applications by the end of this period. This liquid electrolyte technology has direct applicability to highenergydensity lithium batteries for electric vehicle application. Upon the success of this project in Phase 2, the commercialization of the electrolyte will accelerate the wide deployment of highenergydensity vehicle batteries and enable a large market penetration of electric vehicles. Moreover, R&D results will be published and communicated with industrial and academic communities.