Oman-backed Group14 bets big on silicon battery technology
Group14 Technology, a Usbased start-up pioneering the development of innovative battery materials, says its proprietary silicon battery material can be a game-changer in serving as a clean, safe and sustainable alternative to conventional lithium-ion batteries.
The Washington-based company revealed in a social media post that its silicon carbon composite, dubbed ‘SCC55’, addresses many of the shortcomings currently associated with lithium-ion batteries.
By enabling faster charging and providing higher energy density, silicon batteries can be made far more compact and light, while packing significantly higher energy capacity, a top executive noted.
”Conventional lithium-ion batteries are just simply not going to take us where we need to go for the future. And at Group14, our part is trying to make the world’s best material so that we can reinvent what a lithium-ion battery is, and it’s called a silicon battery. What’s normally on the market for lithium-ion batteries utilises a graphite-based anode. That has worked quite well since the inception of the lithiumion battery. However, it quickly reaches its limits in terms of energy density,” Rick Costantino, Chief Technology Officer, said.
“Silicon comes into the mix now in terms of how we can improve that. We invented our own way of making that silicon addressing the issues that typical silicon material would have, which is volume expansion,” he explained.
SCC55, a composite with nanosilicon amorphous carbon wide space, provides higher energy density and enables faster charging, according to the executive. “That means that we can either have more capacity and a battery the same size, or make batteries much smaller and lighter for different applications. With incorporating silicon, we’re able to get to energy densities 10 times that of graphite, which can really enable this next generation of consumer electronics and devices such as EVS.”
Recognising the transformational potential of silicon-battery technology, Oman Investment Authority (OIA), the integrated sovereign wealth fund of the Sultanate of Oman, participated alongside a number of leading international investors in Group14’s Series C funding round in Q4 2022. At around the same time, OIA also added Ascend Elements, a Us-based engineered materials and lithiumion battery recycling firm, in its portfolio of climate tech sector investments.
Group14 says its technology has the potential to enable the ‘electrification of everything’.
“We built our silicon battery material to transition the world towards the electrification of everything. Designed from the ground up to create transformational change today — enabling a new era of mobility and energy storage. Silicon batteries are longer lasting, faster charging, safer, cleaner and more reliable than any other battery around. The electrification of everything is coming, and it’s powered by Group14,” the company added.