Imagine using your laptop, non-stop, flying from
New York to Los Angeles and back on a single
battery charge. Or, picture using your digital
camera or mobile phone for days on end without
recharging. QuantumSphere has just filed a patent
for a nanotechnology that extends the capacity of
lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries up to five times.
“We’re working on the anode side of the battery
and will then begin work on the cathode side soon,
with the production expected in 24 to 30 months,”
says Kevin Maloney, president and CEO
of QauntumSphere. He also says QuantumSphere
is working with a fairly large
battery manufacturer on this effort and
expects to have some results sometime
next year.
So far, the company has produced a novel, paperthin,
high-rate nano-enabled electrode designed
for disposable Li-ion batteries (Fig. 1). “Our Li-ion
electrode with nano-lithium particles essentially
packs more lithium in a given electrode space leading
to much higher energy densities than what’s been
achievable so far,” says Subra Iyer, principal technologist
at the company.
“They key is in obtaining greater energy levels for
a given area of a material in a cost-effective and safe
manner,” explains Kimberly McGrath, a Quantum-
Sphere fuel-cell scientist.
“We can achieve energy density levels between
1000 to 1500 mAh/g, compared with about 350 mAh/g
for what’s been best achieved by others. That’s a
three- to five-fold improvement,” adds Iyer (Fig. 2).
QuantumSphere also says that its latest work has
produced highly favorable results compared to other
leading types of rechargeable batteries in terms of
Wh/kg.
A PERFECTED AND SAFE PROCESS
The company’s confident prediction about the success
of its Li-ion work is not without some proof of encouraging results it has achieved so
far. QuantumSphere credits this to its
ultra-pure and highly uniform patented
manufacturing process for metal and
alloy particles of 50 nm in size. The
process has already produced zinc-air
batteries that are being used by major
hearing-aid manufacturers, resulting in
a 320% increase in power delivery.
According to QuantumSphere, the
technology reduces cost and dramatically
improves battery and fuel-cell
electrode performance and on-demand
hydrogen generation. The company
also claims it is the industry’s first process
to allow for narrow-sized distributions
without the use or production of
hazardous chemicals or gases.
“In our experience, other methods for
making nano materials to such exacting
measurements proved too costly,
too labor intensive, too inconsistent,
or unsafe,” says Maloney. “The key to
our company’s patented process is the
ability to make commercial volumes
of nano metals and alloys in a fully
automated and scalable manner while
maintaining size and purity.”
The process is being focused on
battery and fuel-cell electrode formulations.
This involves incorporating highsurface-
area catalysts by using a newly
patented gas-diffusion layer that incorporates
nano-manganese particles 5
to 30 nm in size. The result is significantly
higher power densities relative
to commercially available gas-diffusion
electrodes employed in metal-air and
alkaline batteries that generally use
platinum-based catalysts. The nanomanganese
base-metal substrate costs
less than platinum, with only a slight
penalty in performance.
ROGER ALLAN
QuantumSphere Inc.
www.qsinano.com