Nuvola Technology claims to have developed direct deposition polymer separator technology that can eliminate the primary cause of lithium-ion battery fires.
Nuvola Technology has introduced its patented direct deposit separator technology, which replaces conventional film separators and offers incremental improvements in safety and efficiency.
The SafeCoat Direct Deposition Separator material is the first product released by the Los Angeles-based startup, formerly known as Millibatt. Under its previous name, the venture capital-funded company focused on small, high-density, rechargeable batteries, biomedical applications, and Internet of Things sensor applications.
Nuvola has been selected as one of 10 winners of LG Energy Solutions’ annual 2022 Battery Challenge. The competition brought together more than 100 companies with new battery technologies and business models.
SafeCoat describes itself as a “drop-in” solution for lithium-ion batteries, compatible with all major lithium-ion manufacturing techniques. Sprayed directly over the entire surface of the electrodes, a porous polymer coating bonds the electrodes and protects them from thermal runaway and potential fire.
According to Nuvola, the weak point of the battery system is the thousands of thinly folded sheets of microscopic plastic membrane that separate the electrodes and make the battery vulnerable to manufacturing errors and failures.
“During the battery assembly process, a single spacer sheet can be damaged, causing undetectable shrinkage, misalignment, misfolding, or a small tear that allows electrodes to contact. This can occur in a fire, days, months, or years later,” the company says.
In addition to improving safety, SafeCoat is said to increase the amount of active material in the battery and improve energy density by up to 20%. By reducing the separator thickness from a 20 µm plastic film separator to a 5 µm layer of SafeCoat, more space is left for lithium ions in the same physical space.
According to the company, the Nuvola Safecode product is valued by several major battery makers and car manufacturers. He expects products using this technology to hit the market by 2025.
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