NASA Awards Contract to NEI and UCSD to Develop Nanoscale Materials for High Energy Density Li-ion Batteries
NASA has awarded a Phase II Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract to NEI Corporation and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to develop and implement
high energy density cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. NEI is the prime contractor and UC San Diego is the subcontractor. NEI expects sample cathode materials for
testing by interested end-users to be made available by the middle of 2011.
The outcome of the program will be a commercially useable cathode material with a high capacity of more than 250 mAh/g, which translates to an energy density in excess of 1000 Wh/kg. This represents a factor of two enhancement in energy density over lithium cobalt oxide.
NASA says that such advanced lithium-ion battery systems are required for its exploration missions that will operate at low temperatures and could be used to power components and systems such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Mars Atmospheric and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), deep drilling equipment and Astrobiology Field Laboratory on Mars, International X-ray Observatory (IXO), and
extravehicular activities. Additionally, the lithium-ion battery packs could also be used in hybrid electric vehicles, consumer electronics, medical devices, electric scooters, and a variety of military applications.
The nearly $600,000 program builds upon expertise in the Department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego in modeling new nanocomposite structures for next generation
electrode materials, and NEI’s capability to reproducibly synthesize electrode materials, particularly at the nanoscale. NEI says it has overcome the challenge of producing ultrafine powders that can be used in the fabrication of electrodes without any further processing, i.e., it is a drop-in replacement for
conventionally used materials.
Tags: james webb space telescope, lithium ion battery, lithium ion battery packs
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