The novel anode, which was invented by Professor Ovadia Lev, from the center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry at the Hebrew University, together with colleagues from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and The Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, is based on coating graphene with antimony sulphide (stibnite) nanoparticles.
The research is sponsored by Singapore’s National Research Foundation, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programs in Electromobility and Nanomaterials for energy and water management, in addition to the Israel-Strategic Alternative Energy Foundation.
The material provides more than two times the capacity of hard carbon, retains its charge capacity even at high current rates, and exhibits a charge and discharge time of 10 minutes.
This would allow fast charging of NIBs in the future, which will enable utilization in applications such as electric vehicles. In addition to the excellent rate capability, the material also shows stable cycle performance, with capacity retention of more than 95% after 50 cycles.
"Researchers at the Hebrew University are committed to developing novel, innovative and efficient solutions that will help deal with the energy requirements of the modern world. The novel sodium ion anode invented by Prof. Ovadia and his colleagues is one such important step toward developing an environmentally friendly, economic and efficient NIB that will replace the current lithium battery for many applications," said Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum.
"The battery market in the US alone is estimated at $14 billion, and is projected to grow to $17 billion by 2017. The novel anode will no doubt help propel the integration of NIBs into this market, and Yissum is now looking for potential partners for further development and commercialization of this invention."
