Why We Developed Demand Technology? (State-of-the-Art)

There are several important aspects of our journey to DEMAND Technology:
Battery technologies have been gaining enormous importance over the past decade especially in electric vehicle and portable electronics applications.  Regardless of its type, one primary need in a battery is high charge capacity or high energy density since electrical energy in a battery is directly proportional to the amount of charge stored. The demand for high energy density batteries has been continuously increasing as we develop technologies that consume more and more energy, while on the other hand end users do not want frequent re-charging. The consumer also needs battery to be low-cost, durable, have a long lifespan, and not to have negative impact to environment.

• Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) suffer from the limited charge capacity at the anode electrode, which significantly hinders the energy density of the battery and increases end-user costs due to frequent need for charging, which shortens the battery lifespan.
• Among all the potential materials for LIB anodes, silicon (Si) stands out as the most attractive one as it offers the maximum theoretical charge capacity of 4200 mAh/g. This is about 10 times higher compared to the 372 mAh/g charge capacity of conventional graphite anode. However, Si anodes in LIBs faces substantial challenges such as:
  • Swelling due to extensive volumetric expansion as it absorbs lithium ions during charging and corresponding contraction during discharging. Silicon expands as much as about 400% that creates a huge amount of mechanical stress, which can lead to fracturing and pulverization of the anode.
  • Such bre­aking of the Si anode results in total battery failure or in other words short battery lifetimes.

What We Offer?

Our unique and simple synthesis method allows us to modulate the den­sity of silicon anode making it flexible and durable that leads to Lithium Ion Batteries with superior energy densities and lifetimes.

• DEMAND utilizes commercially available material fabrication systems, making it scalable for industrial production at high throughput and low cost, and does not involve any toxic chemicals.
• DEMAND achieved impressive charge capacity values of about 3500 mAh/g at initial charging/discharging cycles, and maintained a stable charge capacity of 2000 mAh/g even after 300 cycles. Such an enhancement by our density-modulated Si anode technology corresponds to approximately 5.4 times more charge storage capacity at each cycle, is equivalent to ~1600 cycles of a conventional battery, which overall significantly extends the usage time .
• DEMAND brings an innovative anode-fabrication approach with minimal disruption to current Lithium Ion Battery manufacturing process flow at the same time addressing recurring manufacturing costs, touch labor costs, and the transition costs for high rate manufacturing. Long battery lifespan achieved by our DEMAND technology can also significantly reduce end-user costs.

Electronic Devices' Urgent Need

Batteries for electronic devices are used mainly within laptops and mobile phones, as well as for tablets, e-readers  and other devices. All these applications have similar requirements, with volumetric energy density by far the most important. They need to provide the largest-possible amount of energy in the most compact form.

Electric Vehicles' Urgent Need

The fast-growing Electric Vehicles (EVs)' market is made up of major groups of EVs, each with a distinct set of requirements: hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), full electric vehicles (EVs) and commercial electric vehicles (CEVs). In this category, as the battery is charged and discharged frequently and powerfully through braking, it has to have a high power density, extremely short charging time, and long cycle lifetime, which requires thousands of cycles.” EVs no longer have ICEs, and thus require much larger batteries to deliver sufficient range for drivers, which makes energy density their most important needs. EVs also require batteries with high reliability and good cycle lifetimes, which enable them to last for the same mileage as the rest of the car components. Cycle lifetime is also of more importance than in PHEVs and EVs, as the buses are charged at least daily. In the case of buses for which fast charging is required, they can be fully charged multiple times a day, which makes cycle lifetime even more important.

Start-Stop Systems' Urgent Need

This is the oldest (and still largest) application area. Starting an engine requires very large currents for a short period – up to 300 amperes for only a few seconds. In comparison, a washing machine only requires 10 amperes. This makes power density a key requirement for such batteries. Recent advances in “start-andstop” systems, in which the engine shuts off automatically when waiting for a traffic light, are also placing an increasing burden on the cycle lifetime of batteries.