All-Solid-State Batteries
A research group at the Graduate School of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Toyota Motor, and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization has successfully developed an all-solid-state ceramic battery with output characteristics more than three times those of lithium-ion battery. The research group has found an ultra-ion conductor with conductivity twice that of conventional lithium-ion conductor, and applied it to the electrolyte of the storage battery. Practical application of the battery is expected in the first half of the 2020s.

Ilika Technologies Ltd., a British venture company, has developed Stereax, an all-solid-state battery with an operating temperature range of -40 to 150°C. It features about half the volume of a lithium-ion battery with the same capacity and about six times its charging speed. It highlights a battery life that allows more than 10,000 charging and discharging cycles. The battery comprises a multilayer thin film produced using the originally developed high throughput physical vapor deposition (HT-PVD) method. As it is small, it can be integrated with other components, such as semiconductors, complementary metal-oxide semiconductors (CMOS), and sensors.

Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, Inc. is set to establish a mass-production technology for low-cost solid electrolyte materials for all-solid-state batteries by 2020. In cooperation with Tohoku University, the company has already announced a lithium-sulfur (LiS) rechargeable battery with theoretical capacity more than 10 times that of conventional storage batteries. The lithium-sulfur battery uses sulfur for cathode material, metal lithium for anode material, and complex hydride for solid electrolyte. The company has established a pilot supply system for battery materials that meet the requirements of battery manufacturers and started offering samples.