No. 752: A new material for lithium-ion battery to realize 10 times more capacity (August 1, 2013)

Technology:

The principle of a lithium-ion battery

Shin-EtsuChemical developed a new material that increases the capacity of lithium-ion battery by up to 10 times. It is a sheet-like material inside lithium-ion battery used to store electricity. The material is currently made of a carbon-based material, but the company used silicone instead by utilizing the technology it has accumulated in the development of semiconductor wafer. Silicone is considerably higher in price than the carbon-based material, but the former can store 10 times more electricity than the latter. The new sheet-like material increases the operating time of a smartphone in addition to creating the possibility to make it smaller.  

Shin-Etsu Chemical has already started to ship samples to battery manufacturers both at home and abroad. It will solve such problems with mass production as production cost and deterioration due to deformation in collaboration with them. Mass production is scheduled to start in three to four years. Hitachi Chemical is developing a technology to increase the capacity of lithium-ion battery by using an alloy. Sumitomo Osaka Cement is also involved in the development race. Japanese companies has 50% share in the world market of materials for lithium-ion battery. A Japanese research firm estimates that the world lithium-ion battery market will increase 50% from the level in 2012 to 1,700 billion yen in 2017. In the world, 700 million smartphones are shipped annually, and demand for a smartphone with a larger capacity is growing as more and more people use it instead of a PC on business. 

 Shin-Etsu Chemical and Silione