Presentation at IBA Meeting 2023
3.
7V K-ion Battery Enabled by Potassium Prussian White (KPW)
From Invention to Commercialization
Leigang Xue ([email protected])
Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder, Group1 inc
International Battery Association
Austin, Texas
03/06/2023
Contact – [email protected] 1
”Powering Batteries
Beyond
Lithium…Building on the
Best of Lithium”
The world's 1st engineered
materials company focused on
enabling Potassium-ion
batteries.
• Founded: Q3 2021
• Began operations Q1 2022
• HQ: Austin, TX
Contact – [email protected] 2
Dr. Goodenough Inventions over 4 decades
Enabled Sustainable Battery Materials
LiCoO2 LiMn2O4 LiFePO4 Na2MnFe(CN)6 K2MnFe(CN)6
1980 1984 1997 2013 2016
LIB invention Co/Ni-free Li-free (beyond-Li)
2015
Commercialization of these materials needed to meet US goals for electrification
Contact – [email protected] 3
Discovery of K2MnFe(CN)6 : Dendrite free
liquid Na-K alloy anode
Outlook on K-Ion Batteries, Chem 6, 2442–2460, 2020
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451929420304228
• Na does not form
intercalated
graphite compound
• Na2MnFe(CN)6 does
not work with
graphite Liquid Na-K alloy Liquid Na-K alloy in porous membrane
• Liquid Na-K alloy to
the rescue Adv Mater. 2016;28(43):9608-9612
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201602633
RSC Adv., 2017,7, 36550-36554
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelandin Contact – [email protected] 4
g/2017/ra/c7ra06777a
Liquid Na-K is effective reservoir of K+ as
anode for MnFe(CN)6
Liquid Na-K
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140, 9, 3292–3298
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b12267
Na+ Electrolyte
Na2MnFe(CN)6 Cathode
Adv Mater. 2016;28(43):9608-9612
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201602633
During charge, Na2MnFe(CN)6 lose Na+ and transforms to MnFe(CN)6
During discharge, MnFe(CN)6 only accept K+ and transforms to K2MnFe(CN)6 because of it is
thermodynamically more stable than Na2MnFe(CN)6
Contact – [email protected] 5
K2MnFe(CN)6 : discovery of a new class of K-
ion Cathode
Voltage Specific capacity Energy density
Na2MnFe(CN)6 3.4 171 581
K2MnFe(CN)6 4.0 156 624
LiFePO4 3.4 170 578
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 6, 2164–2167
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.6b12598
Contact – [email protected] 6
KIB is building on best of LIB technology..
Some challenges of KIB remain to be resolved
Cathode, K2MnFe(CN)6 Separator, Al2O3/PE/PP
§ Purity § Drop-in
§ Defects
§ Particle size, BET
§ PSD
§ Specific capacity
§ ICE
§ Conductivity
Anode, Graphite Electrolyte, Organic-based
§ Drop-in § Salts: KPF6, KFSI…
§ Specific capacity § Solvents: carbonates or
§ ICE phosphates…
(nonflammable)
§ Additives to manage ICE
§ Electrolyte formulations
to enable performance
cycling beyond LFP
Contact – [email protected] 7
Graphite performs well as K+ anode with specific
capacity of 279 mAh/g and long cycle life
A-C Alloy Intercalation Voltage (V) Theoretical Spec. Cap.
Li+ LiC6 0.10 372
Na+ N/A N/A 0
K+ KC8 0.15 279
Energy Environ. Mater. 2022, 5, 458–469
https://doi.org/10.1002/eem2.12194
Contact – [email protected] 8
Development of KIB requires robust half cells - choosing the
right reference electrode: K vs. Na-K alloy
Liquid NaK-NaK symmetric cell K-K symmetric cell
Adv Mater. 2016;28(43):9608-9612
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201602633
Contact – [email protected] 9
Graphite anode half cell data
Liquid Na-K
K+ Electrolyte
Graphite
Contact – [email protected] 10
K+ offers unique ability to formulate electrolyte
due to its mobility and conductivity
Radius K+ Na+ Li+ Conductivity K+ Na+ Li+
1M APF6 in
Ion radius 10.7 9.7 9.3
EC/DEC
Stokes radius
0.8M AFSI in PC 6.55 6.38 4.38
(H2O)
Stokes radius
2M AFSI in TEP
(PC) 3.1 2.2 1.3
Adv.Mater.2021, 33, 2003741
Electrolytes and Interphases in Potassium Ion Batteries
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adma.202003741
Group1 Confidential 11
Kristonite™ (KPW) cathode half cell data
Liquid Na-K 5.0
4.5
Voltage (V, vs. K+/K)
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Specific capacity (mAh/g)
140
K+ Electrolyte
Specific capacity (mAh/g)
120
100
80
Kristonite™
cathode 60
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Cycle number
Contact – [email protected] 12
Building first in the world KIB (Kristonite™/G)
pouch cell
Kg-scale material synthesis KPW cathode electrode Graphite anode electrode
Electrode coating
Contact – [email protected] 13
The world-first 200mAh KIB (Kristonite™/G)
pouch cell
The world-first KIB pouch
§ 3.6V
§ 200mAh, multistack
§ Co/Ni/Li/Cu/O-free
§ Drop-in with graphite
§ Nonflammable electrolyte
Contact – [email protected] 14
KiB well positioned for EV applications that
use LFP cathode
1000 Theoretical Material Capacity and Voltage 4.1 700 Practical Cell-level Energy 4.1
920mAh/cc 4.0V
3.9 3.9
3.8 600 648 Wh/L
Capacity (mAh/g, mAh/cc)
3.7V 3.8
3.7V
750 3.6 3.6V 3.6
Capacity (Wh/L, Wh/kg)
500
3.4V 3.4V 3.4 448 Wh/L 3.4
431 Wh/L
3.2
Voltage (V)
3.2
Voltage (V)
400 3.2V
500 459mAh/cc 3.1 3.1
3.1V
375mAh/cc 2.9 300 259 Wh/kg 2.9
306mAh/cc 2.7 2.7
200 166 Wh/kg 180 Wh/kg
250 200mAh/g 2.5 156 Wh/kg229 Wh/L 2.5
170mAh/g 156mAh/g 170mAh/g
2.4 2.4
100
2.2 2.2
0 2.0
0 2.0
NCM/G LFP/G KPW/G NaPW/HC
NCM712/G LFP/G KPW/G NaPW/HC
LG Chem BYD CATL
E66A Blade NiB (not
(66Ah) (202Ah) commercial)
Contact – [email protected] 15
Team
Group1: Alex Girau, Yakov
Kutsovsky, Leigang Xue, Patrick
Crowley, Cole Mough
UT-Austin: Prof. David Mitlin, Prof.
Brian Korgel, Yixian Wang
Texas Materials Institute
UT-Austin Energy Institute
Polaris Battery Labs
Texas State University (STAR Park)
Professor JB Goodenough and his life mission to develop
sustainable batteries
Contact – [email protected] 16
