Opinion piece by Venkat Rajaraman – Chief Executive Officer, Cygni Energy Pvt Ltd
Prof Jeff Dahn’s (Dalhousie University, Canada) seminal paper, which got published after 3 years of extensive research, is touted as the “Benchmark for New Battery Technologies”. Though this paper does not describe any brand new chemistry, it is a composite of the industry’s best practices. The secret sauce is the electrolyte, with novel additives and other changes that can make the battery last longer. The paper also focuses on single crystal cathode (powder of cathode material made into a single crystal so that it doesn’t react with the surrounding electrolyte) as well as the best of cathode, anode and electrolyte materials to set the bar for achieving a million-mile battery.