Greater safety, larger storage capacities, shorter charging times – solid-state batteries are expected to outperform conventional lithium-ion batteries in almost all performance parameters in the future. The battery competence cluster FestBatt, with the participation of researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has developed the basis for this. In a second funding phase, complete battery systems and methods for production are now being developed. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing funding of around 23 million euros.
Greater safety, larger storage capacities, shorter charging times – solid-state batteries are expected to outperform conventional lithium-ion batteries in almost all performance parameters in the future. The battery competence cluster FestBatt, with the participation of researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), has developed the basis for this. In a second funding phase, complete battery systems and methods for production are now being developed. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing funding of around 23 million euros.
Further development of the lithium-ion battery could give electromobility a decisive boost in just a few years. Professor Helmut Ehrenberg, coordinator of the Characterization Platform in the FestBatt competence cluster of the KIT Institute for Applied Materials (IAM), is convinced of this: “Solid-state batteries do not require liquid and combustible electrolytes, their chemistry allows higher energy densities and shorter charging times. In addition, toxic and rare materials such as cobalt can be dispensed with.” The FestBatt competence cluster, which was launched in 2018, is developing this key technology on behalf of the German government and is now entering its second funding phase. The work is taking place in a highly competitive international environment – in order to open up future markets to Europe as quickly as possible, the Federal Government has pooled the expertise of 17 scientific institutions in FestBatt. Among them are universities, Helmholtz institutes as well as institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, the overall work is coordinated by the Justus-Liebig-University Gießen (JLU).
First steps on the way to mass production
The new funding phase of FestBatt will focus on the development of cell components and entire solid-state battery cells based on promising electrolytes, and will also develop material and process technologies for their production. However, there are still a number of scientific and technological challenges to be solved before solid-state batteries can be mass produced. The characterization platform coordinated by KIT with the participation of the University of Marburg, the Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the JLU will, among other things, perform characterizations of contact and interfaces with X-ray, synchrotron, and neutron radiation as well as different microscopy techniques on complex multiphase systems. Among other things, a research group at KIT will make the cathode materials provided with special protective layers available to the partners within the platform and then as reference material to all other collaborative projects participating in FestBatt for complete characterization.
A head start through systematic characterization
In the first funding phase of FestBatt, more than 100 researchers worked in transdisciplinary thematic platforms to identify suitable materials and synthesize different solid electrolytes. The characterization platform systematically investigated the materials: The most important influencing variables in the synthesis of solid electrolytes and critical material changes in composites were identified. The further development of solid-state batteries in the second funding phase of FestBatt is now building on this. Only the development of standardized measurement protocols made it possible to reliably determine the performance characteristics and classify the very different cell concepts that are being developed with great intensity worldwide.