Toyota Leads in Solid State Battery Tech - Hybrid Coming

Toyota isn't even developing a lithium-metal battery. Therefore, even if they succeed in developing a solid-state battery, it will only be a marginal improvement over the existing lithium-ion technology if at all.

 

not much beef in that article

 

Toyota's SSB technology does not decrease the charging time because it's not lithium-metal. They can decrease the charging time by increasing the silicon content in the anode, but you don't need an SSB to be able to do that. If Toyota's SSB becomes successful, it will increase the energy density by eliminating the liquid electrolyte and decrease the fire hazard by eliminating the liquid electrolyte and plastic porous separator, but it won't change the charging time.

 

When it comes to Toyota, its just wishful thinking, currently Toyota is ahead in nothing really.

 

Yes, the advantage will be mainly the energy density.

One downside of SSB cells is that they typically require an externally applied pressure to ensure that the cathode and anode have good interfaces with the solid-state separator/electrolyte, which conducts the lithium ions, in Toyota's case a sulfide. The externally applied pressure requires pressure plates and screws, which decrease the energy density after packing. The more pressure needed, the heavier will be these pressure apparatuses, at one point making the SSB impractical. Toyota has never disclosed the pressure they use.

Solid Power is also working on a technology similar to Toyota, with a sulfide solid-state separator/electrolyte. They are aiming for 50% silicon content in the anode, which should allow 15-minute (60/15 = 4C) charging if successful. The main problem with higher silicon content in the anode is that silicon expands, damaging the cell. Nevertheless, higher-silicon-content-anode cells (non-SSB) are currently the biggest trend in new lithium-ion technology, save the lithium-metal-anode technology, which is also under development. I don't know if the externally applied pressure in SSBs help mitigate the silicon-expansion problem. Moreover, Solid Power hasn't disclosed their externally applied pressure either.

 

Your Solid Power is now producing cells that can store 20Ah but after site expansion they can produce enough electrolyte they can start producing 100Ah cells. Probably a reason why BMW and Ford invested in them and BMW has been getting the 20Ah cells.

Reading Toyota's patent they are using a Li2S sulfide ceramic glass solid electrolyte that is bonded to the cathode that contains very similar material and the anode is made of both metal active and carbon active materials. Their cross section shows no separator, just layers of a positive collector (4), positive electrode (1), solid electrolyte layer (3), negative electrode (2), negative collector (5) and that's it. Reminds me of their NiMH Bipolar battery but without the separators.

Neither Toyota or Solid Power indicated a requirement for external pressure but that does not mean they aren't taking advantage of internally generated pressure. Patent is US9172113B2 if you want to look it up and have been working on it since 2015. I believe a main wear out mechanism is the cracking of this ceramic glass electrolyte but not why you would be thinking. Apparently Toyota's SSB resists short cycles of charging and discharging very well. And you would be saying gee this is similar in operation to how a hybrid operates.

Samsung appears to have worked out a lithium free anode made of Silver-Carbon (AgC) nanocomposite layer that in a pouch cell is 50% smaller, delivers 900 Wh/L and features 1,000 cycles. With all of this competition, it's no wonder Toyota has their feet to the fire. Now to just cut the costs. The production extremes like temperatures and nano sizes for creating these solid electrolytes seem very similar to making integrated circuits (ICs). The biggest difference is anybody can purchase machines to produce ICs in volume. For batteries, these are still one offs.

 

LOL Solid Power hasn't been able to make a single working cell to date, and what you mentioned is all hype. You can build a factory to make cells, but if the cells don't work, at the end of the day, you have no business. By next year, we will find out if Solid Power can actually deliver what they promised or not. The same goes for their competition.

Don't read much into patents. Toyota has more than 200 patents on SSBs and most are to confuse other people on what they are doing or not doing. LOL

Every day, someone makes the claim that they made a battery with three times the energy density and that lasts ten times longer. They never see the light of day because there is always a catch that prevents them from ever becoming practical. Developing a new battery technology is incredibly difficult—basically, it is a 99.9% fail.

 

I don't know but it seems like we're redoing the jump from transistors to ICs to microprocessors on a single chip. At the time it seemed all hype and a long time and a whole lot of seemingly very influential people saying "why do you need this level of integration, no normal person is going to need it". And oh yeah very expensive.

I should probably add that in the old days, 1980s - 1990's, manufacturing a battery required a class 1 clean room or less. Now Toyota (and Panasonic) has recognized they need class 5 - something needed for ICs back in early 2000's. Toyota has over 1,000 patents on SSB, why waste all that paperwork? Or worse why waste all that money on patent lawyers? All of that seems like a lot of waste for nothing.