Nexeon Recognised in BEEA Awards

14th October 2011

Nexeon Ltd

ES Admin

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The company making huge leaps forward in the development of next generation lithium ion batteries was recognised in the BEEA awards yesterday. Nexeon, based in Oxfordshire, was a finalist in the ‘Best Design Team’ award for its work in using silicon in place of carbon as the anode material in Li-ion batteries. Progress has been rapid over the last few years with capacities of ‘18650’ cells having been increased to more than 4Ah. This compares with a typical performance from a commercial cell of just 2.5 – 2.6 Ah.

The BEEA Best Design Team Award category recognises criteria such as the degree of innovation applied, as well as how well the design team met the project milestones and the selection and application of technology.

Nexeon’s anode technology is based on silicon which is a naturally superior material for this application, but which brings challenges of dimensional stability. This is where the Nexeon team has triumphed by producing silicon morphologies which are stable and allow increased cell capacity with hundreds of charge cycles and practical discharge rates, as required by applications ranging from cell phones, laptops and many other consumer devices to electric vehicles and the storage of renewable energy.

Commenting at the award ceremony in London yesterday, Dr Scott Brown, CEO, said: “I am immensely proud of our scientists and engineers, who have really pushed forward the frontiers of what is possible. At the same time, we have materials under evaluation with ‘tier one’ battery companies with plans for commercialisation in the near future.”

In July, Nexeon closed a £40 million funding round and announced plans to create a manufacturing capability for silicon-based battery materials of up to 250 tonnes per annum.