Organic Ionic Plastic Crystals and Electrolytes for Solid-State Batteries

Inventor Pradip K. Bhowmik

His expertise includes Organic and Polymer Synthesis, Nanomaterials Synthesis, Green Chemistry, Ionic Liquids, and Anticancer Drugs

Invention

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are crucial components as energy-storage devices in many consumer electronics including laptops and smartphones. Demands for their large-scale utilizations are ever-increasing growth along with rapid expansion of the electric vehicles market. Although considered to be safe as final products, at the cell-chemistry level LIBs rely on flammable organic liquid electrolytes and impose safety risks. Solid-state batteries, in which solid electrolytes are used as ion-conductive pathways have garnered attention because of the higher thermal stability of solid electrolytes compared to conventional liquid electrolytes in LIBs. If SSBs can be made cost-effective and achieve comparable performance with LIIBs, the replacement of LIBs with SSBs will be viable to develop this new technology. 

Benefits:

• Can be used in emerging applications in electrochemical devices, including lithium ion, sodium ion batteries, fuel cells and dye-sensitized solar cells
• Can be employed as additives in perovskite solar cells enhancing power conversion efficiencies and stability.
• Useful for the preparation of flexible and quasi-solid state gel polymer electrolytes for application in carbon supercapacitors 
• Prevent the dendritic growth associated with the LIBs.

Market Opportunity: 

As found by IBISWorld, battery manufacturing in the US is a growing industry at a rate of 1.8% CAGR between 2024 and 2029 with a current revenue of $11.9B. Another report specifically regarding lithium battery manufacturing in the US is listed with a revenue of $1.9B with a 3.1% CAGR between 2023 and 2028. 

Intellectual property