Argonne and Toda Kogyo Partner on Lithium-Ion Battery Technology License

Front, left to right: Argonne National Laboratory Director Robert Rosner, Toda’s Kenji Ogisu. Back, left to right: Argonne Inventors Sun-Ho Kang, Chris Johnson, Mike Thackeray, Khalil Amine.

In a huge leap forward to bring consumers longerlasting, safer lithium-ion batteries, Argonne and Toda Kogyo of Japan recently signed a world-wide licensing agreement to commercially produce and sell Argonne’s patented composite cathode materials.

“Our agreement with Toda Kogyo is an important step toward bringing to market key advanced lithium-ion battery technologies that are being developed here at Argonne with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),” said Gary Henriksen, Manager of the Electrochemical Energy Storage Department at Argonne. “The technologies being licensed will enhance the performance, life and inherent safety of lithium-ion cells compared to those that employ the cobalt-based cathode technology that has dominated the market since the introduction of lithium-ion batteries in 1990.” Toda Kogyo can make materials for more than 30 million laptop batteries per year.

Lithium-ion batteries made with Argonne’s materials can store up to 30 percent more energy than lithium ion cells now on the market. These batteries are also less combustible. Both these advantages will be a boon to the hybrid-electric vehicle, laptop, and electronics markets.

The new cathode materials form a composite matrix of a stable, inactive lithium-metal oxide integrated with a highly active form of another lithium-metal oxide component. This composite allows for greater amounts of lithium to be used and reduces oxygen-induced side reactions that may lead to combustion, limiting cell life and safety. The enhanced stability of these materials allows a battery to be charged to higher voltages, which means increased energy storage. The battery can also be charged many more times, which means longer shelf life.

“We are very enthusiastic about the impact of Toda’s commitment to manufacture and market these technologies through the license,” Steve Ban, director of Argonne’s Office of Technology Transfer, said. “We believe the near-term commercial use of these materials and other battery technologies developed at Argonne will provide broad benefits to users of batteries containing the advanced materials and prove the value of closely linking research in basic battery science to applied R&D efforts in the area, as is the approach here at Argonne.”

A next step in research will be to improve the charge and discharge rate of the materials so they can be used in batteries for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Toda Kogyo Corporation is a respected supplier of materials in the lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery markets. The company recently acquired a plant in the Detroit area that will help serve U.S. automobile manufacturers. Toda’s plant in Ontario, Canada, produces cathode materials and their precursors for lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries. This cathode technology is just one of many lithium-ion battery inventions and patents developed at Argonne and funded primarily by the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Program. DOE’s commercialization efforts aim at rapidly moving a new technology, product or process from concept to market.

Transforum, Vol. 8, No. 1 (May 2008)