In this article, the ABC newspaper reviews the reasons why silicon has been identified as the material that should replace graphite in the next generation of lithium-ion batteries: ten times more storage capacity than graphite, greater abundance in the earth’s crust and less geodependence than graphite.
To accelerate the effective arrival of this material in today’s batteries, new companies are emerging around the world, developing different types of silicon and through different manufacturing processes, with the aim of minimising the problems that to date have prevented the large-scale integration of this material in batteries, mainly its cracking due to continuous changes in volume.
Floatech, a spin-off of Institute IMDEA Materials, and other companies such as Sila Nanotechnologies and Ferroglobe are working in this context.
