{"id":12051,"date":"2019-02-22T12:24:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T19:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=12051"},"modified":"2019-02-22T12:24:50","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T19:24:50","slug":"polyplus-and-sk-team-on-glass-encapsulated-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/polyplus-and-sk-team-on-glass-encapsulated-batteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Polyplus and SK Team on Glass-Encapsulated Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polyplus,<\/a> a Berkeley, California-based battery developer, has teamed with\u00a0SK, Korea\u2019s\u201d first and largest energy and chemical company<\/a>,\u201c to produce and test prototype cells to demonstrate increased volumetric and gravimetric energy density and cycle life relative to existing Li-ion cells.\u201d\u00a0 Just reported,\u00a0 “The PolyPlus lithium-water battery has achieved the highest recorded energy density of 1,300 Watt-hours\/kilogram<\/a>, or an almost 10x improvement* over current lithium-ion batteries.\u00a0Polyplus projects the energy density for commercial lithium-air batteries to be 1000 watt-hours per kilogram.”<\/p>\n

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Polyplus gained a measure of fame for its ability to function in even salt water environments<\/p><\/div>\n

As with many recent partnerships, the alliance between Polyplus and SK provides “muscle” for the smaller partner.\u00a0 Polyplus<\/a>, with 18 bay area employees, will benefit from the far more sizable SK\u2019s financial and managerial expertise.\u00a0 Between the two firms Polyplus\u2019 135 issued and 40 pending patents should receive proper support.<\/p>\n

According to Green Car Congress<\/a>, \u201cSK selected PolyPlus as partner for its global consortium.\u201d\u00a0 The collaboration is focused on PolyPlus\u2019 solid-state lithium anode laminate that has the potential to double the energy density and cycle life of rechargeable batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partnership hopes to build batteries with increased volumetric and gravimetric density while increasing cycle life.<\/p>\n

Polyplus has been relatively silent since winning praise from Time Magazine<\/em> in 2011 as one of the year\u2019s 50 Best Inventions for its protected lithium electrode (PLE) and recognition from the Edison Committee with a Gold Edison Award in 2012.\u00a0 That electrode is still a part of Polyplus\u2019 basic design in its lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, and lithium water batteries.\u00a0 Patented in 2000, the glass protection now encapsulates a pure lithium metal electrode (since 2017).\u00a0 As shown in many of their publicity photos and the video below, the glass coating protects the pure lithium, which would flare up if brought into contact with water.<\/p>\n