Issue 14
Week 1-7 April 2019
Welcome to a new edition of our Last Week In Batteries digest!
This weekly digest of developments in the battery space is intended as a demonstration of what one can do with Avogadro One. Avogadro One allows capturing relevant news easily and quickly, saving you valuable time. If you want to know when you can use Avogadro One for your own research, please sign up to our mailing list here. We would also be happy to hear any feedback.
This is a very basic review of last week's events relevant to the battery and fuel cell industries. We do not pretend to be experts in this space but as investors we find such an overview helpful. The digest is intentionally very brief and dry and is intended as a demonstration rather as an end product. We'd love to hear what tools/software/platforms you use to stay abreast of the events in your industries of interest: please answer our anonymous questionnaire.
Volkswagen secures lithium supply
Volkswagen has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese manufacturer Ganfeng for 10-year lithium supply for its electric car batteries. That's a lot of lithium...
Impact areas: Lithium battery supply chains
Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-04-vw-year-lithium-electric-cars.html
Toyota releases fuel cell patents
Toyota is giving royalty-free access to almost 24,000 patents "related to electrification technology and systems through 2030." The patents include "2,200 charger patents and 2,380 additional fuel cell patents," which should help advance the adoption of electric and fuel cell vehicles.
Impact areas: Fuel cell adoption
Porous N-doped carbon for battery electrodes
An international research team has designed a process to create nitrogen-doped porous carbon material for electrodes in Li-ion and Na-ion batteries.
Impact areas: Li-ion and Na-ion battery performance
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.01105
T-carbon for energy applications
Researchers from the US and China discuss the applications of T-carbon, a recently synthesized carbon form, in batteries and for hydrogen storage.
Impact areas: Li-ion battery performance, Hydrogen fuel cell adoption
Source: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.00332
Environmentally-friendly battery recycling
Scientists from Rice University have discovered that a "relatively nontoxic" eutectic solvent can recover up to 99% of cobalt and 90% of lithium from Li-ion batteries. This should help recycle batteries more efficiently and cleanly.
Impact areas: Li-ion battery recycling and supply chains
Source: http://news.rice.edu/2019/04/01/new-blue-green-solution-for-recycling-worlds-batteries-2/
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