Nanotextured silicon anodes perform even better than expected, boosting battery energy density to world-record levels, startup Leydenjar found. Now the Dutch company has set out to develop high-throughput deposition equipment to take its superior anodes into gigafactories.
Leydenjar Technologies has developed a lithium-ion battery anode that is made entirely from silicon. The spin-out of applied research institute TNO has shown that swapping carbon for its silicon cousin results in batteries with up to 70 percent higher energy density. Preparations to massively scale-up the production of the anode are underway.
Silicon is an excellent host for lithium ions, but in itself, not a good anode material because of its propensity to crack under the stress of repeatedly taking in and letting go of guests. Leydenjar adopted a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process originally developed for thin-film solar cells to create nanotextured silicon that can comfortably accommodate the volume changes associated with lithium loading and unloading.
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