The super battery of the future: does it come from Switzerland?

Electric cars, energy storage devices, smartphones and laptops: they all have batteries – and the world is demanding more and more of them.

The increasing demand is mainly driven by electric vehicles. In 2021, new car sales will double compared to 2020 to 6.6 million. And this number will multiply, also because the European Commission has just sealed the end of the internal combustion engine by 2035.

If everything stays the same, China in particular will benefit from this development. 75 percent of all lithium-ion batteries, the undisputed market leaders among battery types, are manufactured there. Korea and Japan also have a significant share in the supply chain.

Europe wants to free itself from this dependence and has already started the race for tomorrow’s battery. Now also Switzerland: On Wednesday, the Battery Innovation Hub was officially opened in the technology innovation center CSEM in Neuchâtel. “We bring together the most innovative minds with industry partners to bring the best ideas to production maturity,” said Andreas Hutter, head of the Energy Systems research group at CSEM. The vision: more powerful and more sustainable batteries that are safer and cheaper than the current ones.

Ideas for the drawers

It’s not that there isn’t a lack of good ideas for better batteries in Switzerland. Publications, master’s and doctoral theses, prototypes and patents abound at the two Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne and at the material testing institute Empa in Dübendorf. But there is a big gap between academic research and its transfer to the value chain.

Because it is a long process that requires time and continuity, says Hutter. Things that are missing in research because projects are often only planned for three or four years. “If no industrial partner steps in, the idea disappears in the drawer.”

As a link between research and industry, the hub wants to counteract this.

The lessons of the quartz watch debacle

After all, the role of bridge builder is in CSEM’s DNA. Its predecessor, the Center Électronique Horloger (CEH) in Neuchâtel, developed the world’s first quartz watch in 1967. Only: the Swiss watch industry did not see the value of these battery-powered watches and continued to focus on perfecting the mechanical watch.

A mistake, it soon turned out: the Japanese seized their chance and brought quartz watch technology to market maturity. These cheap watches flooded the market, causing numerous Swiss watch manufacturers to go under in the 1970s and 1980s.

The federal government was alarmed and wanted to prevent something like this from happening again. That is why the Center Suisse d’Électronique et de Microtechnique, the CSEM, was founded in 1984 with the mission of transferring technologies to the economy.

An example of successful collaboration is the development of ultra-light solar foils for the Swiss electric aircraft Solarstratos. Another is the production of a dial for Tissot watches, which converts sunlight into electrical energy.

The next step: the solid state battery

And now the era of batteries has arrived. “With batteries, the process from idea to industrial production is very long,” says Hutter. But: “The companies are currently completely absorbed in the market introduction of current battery technology.” There is a lack of capacity to invest in inventions.

But it needs it. The lithium-ion batteries available on the market have practically reached their physical limit and have almost exhausted their potential in terms of performance and lifespan. Research is therefore being conducted worldwide into new technologies, for example by trying to replace lithium with elements such as sodium, magnesium or aluminum.

But, “Such batteries are still far from being seriously competitive with a lithium battery,” says Hutter. He sees the further development of lithium-ion technology as more promising, towards a solid-state battery in which the previously liquid electrolyte must be replaced by a solid one. “That’s the technology we want to bring to market,” says Hutter. He expects this to be the case in five to ten years.

Solid-state batteries promise greater safety because they contain no flammable liquid. A higher storage density is achieved by replacing the graphite in the anode, the negative terminal of the battery, with wafer-thin metallic lithium foil.

A current weakness in this technology is the formation of so-called lithium dendrites on the anode. These are small, needle-like structures that often spread far enough to destroy the battery.

“There are many ideas to prevent dendrite formation,” says Andreas Hutter. For example, try installing a ceramic separator between the negative and positive terminals. If the dendrite cones hit it, they would break off. Tests still have to show whether this works and can be implemented.

Hutter speaks of a true gold rush in battery development. Swissmem, the association of the Swiss machine, electrical and metal industry, also confirmed this in conversation. “There are many specialist companies in Switzerland that could benefit enormously from this current upheaval if they jump on the bandwagon in time,” says Hutter.

But this now requires major investments, well-trained specialists and appropriate location promotion to keep innovative companies in Switzerland.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)