H2020 SOLiDIFY consortium manufactures a powerful, inexpensive solid-state lithium battery.

As the coordinator of the H2020 SOLiDIFY consortium, imec, together with 13 European partners, has announced the successful development of a high-performance lithium solid-state battery using a manufacturing process that is both cost-effective and compatible with existing lithium-ion production lines, making it a contender for commercial use – meaning prospective client manufacturers won't need to invest in entirely new facilities to produce these solid-state batteries, bringing them to market sooner.

The Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, or imec, is a leading research and innovation center that has manufactured battery pouch cells featuring a unique liquid-to-solid electrolyte in the state-of-the-art battery assembly lab at EnergyVille, Belgium.

Boasting an impressive energy density of 1070 Wh/L, or watt-hours per liter – a unit of measurement for energy density calculated by dividing the battery's energy by its volume – imec batteries surpass the maximum of 800 Wh/L for current lithium-ion batteries on the market.

The room-temperature manufacturing process is both cost-effective and adaptable to existing lithium-ion battery production lines and is projected to cost less than €150 (US$168) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which is encouraging as an affordable option for electric vehicles (EVs). This process holds promise; however, scaling up to cost-effective mass production has remained elusive.

Inside the cell

At the core of the design is a liquid-to-solid process electrolyte that solidifies at room temperature, created using a polymerized ionic liquid nanocomposite.

The prototype sports a higher energy density resulting from a high-capacity composite cathode and thin lithium metal anode sandwiching a solid electrolyte separator within a compact and efficient cell structure. The result is a battery that can store more energy in less space, offering a significant improvement over current technologies.

The SOLiDIFY project, which ended in June 2024, consisted of 14 partnerships with industry partners VDL Groep (The Netherlands), Umicore (Belgium), Solith (Italy), SOLVIONIC (France), Sidrabe (Latvia), Leclanché (Switzerland), Gemmate Technologies (Italy) and Powall (The Netherlands).

Sustainability factors

The SOLiDIFY project's battery also addresses sustainability with a cobalt-lean NMC (Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide) cathode, which lowers the environmental impact of cobalt use, a priority for the industry given the metal's environmental and ethical sourcing issues.

Imec and its partners are now focusing on scaling up production to make these batteries available for industrial use. They're also working on further improvements in energy and power density and exploring next-generation materials for even better performance.

With sufficient testing and development, imec's cost-effective technology could easily become a standard for more efficient and affordable EVs, driving the next wave of innovation in clean energy transportation.

Next steps include streamlining the upscaling process, with imec aiming to continuously increase energy and power density of its battery storage technologies as well as research next-generation cathode materials and lithium-metal anodes using electroplating.