The Projects and Technology Department of the Institute works towards channelling the most innovative ideas of our researchers into marketable solutions through the creation of spin-offs, licensing agreements and industrial partnerships.
Success cases:
Floatech
Floatech has developed a cost-effective and scalable process to produce free-standing silicon nanowire (SiNW) sheets that can be easily integrated into LIBs as high-capacity anodes and withstand extreme volume changes during lithium uptake.
Floatech’s process has emerged from a new branch of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) research that utilizes floating catalyst nanoparticles for enhancing traditional CVD processes. In this, a gaseous Si source is directly converted into a free-standing SiNW sheet, a semi-finished electrode, in one single process. In addition, because of the ultra-long length of the constituent nanowires, the semi-finished electrodes are mechanically robust and do not require reinforcing binders. Hence, costly dispersions of raw materials and the use of substrates are eliminated. Floatech’s SiNW sheets can be directly deposited on current collector foil for integration into LIBs as full anodes.
Website: http://floatech.eu/
