Topic
Anode and cathode material research for lithium-ion and next-generation cells.
Stockholm startup Holyvolt raised $45 million in equity from Fifth Wall, Zone II and CC.VC to hunt for battery chemistries China doesn't control. Chief operating officer Steven Prast puts lithium-ion at best 20% through its maturity curve, an estimate the thesis depends on.
Reality
University of Limerick researchers made carbon nanofibers for sodium-ion batteries from lignosulfonate, a pulp-and-paper waste, in a water-based process. The team says the process also does without the synthetic binders and additives common in battery manufacturing.
Reality
Chemists at Warwick and Birmingham watched precursors decompose under heat and found several unknown phases, including a new form of bismuth vanadate. Its band gap is significantly larger than that of the known forms, so its value for solar hydrogen has yet to be measured.
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Tested in pigs, the battery held about 1.8 volts and faded to 1.45 by the third day. Its 3.5 milliampere-hour ceiling is roughly a tenth of what one uninvolved engineer says the technology needs.
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A $50 million Department of Energy award moved off a Michigan project and onto brownfield expansions in Franklin, Louisiana and Pampa, Texas, where Cabot is adding about $75 million of its own for a 2028 start.
Reality
A 300 C bake in low oxygen turned pristine lithium titanate from a poor ion conductor into a better one without touching the formula. The published account carries no number for how much better.
Reality