Sumitomo Electric Industries Develops Three-fold Increase in Battery Capacity of Porous Aluminum Electric Vehicles

August 15, 2023

Sumitomo Electric Researches and Develops Three-fold Increase in Battery Capacity of Porous Aluminum Electric Vehicles

Japanese veteran communications company Sumitomo Electric Industries Co., Ltd. (referred to as Sumitomo Electric/SEI) recently announced that they have successfully developed a new type of porous aluminum material that can increase the battery capacity of electric vehicles by up to three times.

This new material is called "Aluminum-Celmet", in which Celmet is a porous metal derived from nickel or nickel-chromium alloys. It is made by the conductive coating of foamed plastic, nickel plating and heat treatment to remove plastic foam. , with far higher porosity than non-woven metal fabrics, foam metal (up to 98%), as well as three-dimensional grid structure, full of interconnected, open, spherical micropores, in addition is also very easy to cut, stamping, etc. Way to shape processing.

These characteristics make Celmet very suitable for current collection and maintenance with an active material, and thus have recently been used as anode collectors in hybrid nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Recently, Sumitomo Electric has developed a new material, Aluminum-Celmet, using a similar process. In addition to the advantages of Celmet's porosity, it has ultra-low density (only one-third of nickel) and ultra-high electrical conductivity (less than nickel resistance). Half of the), high corrosion resistance, etc., are very suitable for use in lithium ion or other batteries that require frequent charging and discharging, which Celmet can not do.

Sumitomo Electric claims that after replacing the anode foil in traditional lithium-ion batteries with Aluminum-Celmet, anode active materials per unit area can be significantly increased. Estimates show that this replacement can increase the battery capacity by 1.5-3 times in electric vehicle batteries, thereby greatly prolonging the battery life and mileage of the electric vehicle; if the battery capacity does not change, the new material can also reduce the battery volume by a third. One to two thirds, thereby greatly reducing the weight of electric vehicles.

Sumitomo Electric stated that it has begun small-scale production of Aluminum-Celmet materials at its factory in Osaka, Japan, and is striving for mass production and commercialization. It plans to use lithium-ion batteries, capacitor current collectors, and other fields.

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Ms. Lucia Peng

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