AMSEL: Additive manufacturing of composite solid-state electrolytes

There is significant global demand for improved battery performance across a wide range of applications, including transportation and grid storage. Solid State Electrolyte (SSE) technology will revolutionise battery performance, offering high energy density, faster charging, increased cell durability and enhanced safety. SSE battery systems are being developed globally, however they generally rely on lithium, an expensive and difficult to source material, which causes significant environmental damage during its production.

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Ceramic, Na-ion Sodium Beta Alumina (SBA) electrolytes produced from widely available, low-cost materials, are environmentally sustainable and safe. These electrolytes are used in commercial high temperature battery systems like Na/S. Their use in room temperature applications is limited, as to counterbalance the lower ionic conductivity at room temperature, very thin electrolytes are needed, which are extremely brittle. To overcome this problem research has focused on the development of flexible composite polymer electrolytes (CPE) using SBA powder within a polymeric matrix. This approach has not offered acceptable performance until recently, due to the low ionic conductivity of the polymer matrix. However, a recent breakthrough shows that acceptable battery performance can be achieved using "ultra-thin" (~20 µm) CPE membranes, incorporating relatively large (~20 µm) SBA particles, which leads to the desired combination of ionic conductivity and mechanical properties. This new development will be exploited in the AMSEL project to produce a reliable, scalable process which can be successfully commercialised. This project brings together a consortium of world leading organisations with key complementary expertise. From Germany: the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) has significant capability in high performance ceramic battery material development and Rösler-CeramInno a medium-sized company specialising in the manufacture of high performance ceramic powders. From the UK: the Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (AM-COE) an innovative SME who has developed novel ceramics AM technology and the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) home to the UK's National Centre for Additive Manufacturing.

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The partners will develop and prove a new manufacturing route for solid state electrolyte batteries using a combination of novel materials and advanced manufacturing processes. This is only possible through this groundbreaking international collaboration. The innovation, research activity and exploitation, including the potential for IP generation, are evenly shared between the UK and Germany. As well as the economic benefits, the development of more effective battery technology, particularly for grid storage applications, will support the widespread deployment of green energy solutions helping the UK and Germany meet critical net-zero targets.