Altairnano

Last updated
Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc.
Company typePRIVATE
DE-LISTED
Industry Electronics
Communications
Founded1973
Headquarters Reno, Nevada
Key people
CEO Terry M. Copeland
Products Nano-structured lithium batteries
Specialty chemicals Nanotechnology
RevenueIncrease2.svg US$ 7.8 million (2010) [1]
Increase2.svg US$ 22.41 million (2010)
Decrease2.svg US$ 22.28 million (2010)
Number of employees
106 [2]
Website http://www.altairnano.com/

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. is an American company specializing in the development and manufacturing of energy storage systems for efficient power and energy management. Altair Nantechnologies designs advanced lithium-ion energy systems and batteries.

Contents

Battery technology

Altairnano's best-known product are their lithium-ion batteries, produced by Altair's Power and Energy division. The batteries have an anode made of a lithium titanate oxide formed into a spinel structure. The titanate replaces the graphite anodes of typical lithium-ion batteries. The batteries are not the only batteries to use nanomaterials, but other batteries, like those from A123 Systems generally replace the cathode rather than the anode.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electrode</span> Electrical conductor used to make contact with nonmetallic parts of a circuit

An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit. Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials depending on the type of battery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium-ion battery</span> Rechargeable battery type

A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. In comparison with other commercial rechargeable batteries, Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, higher energy density, higher energy efficiency, a longer cycle life, and a longer calendar life. Also noteworthy is a dramatic improvement in lithium-ion battery properties after their market introduction in 1991: during the next 30 years, their volumetric energy density increased threefold while their cost dropped tenfold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molten-salt battery</span> Type of battery that uses molten salts

Molten-salt batteries are a class of battery that uses molten salts as an electrolyte and offers both a high energy density and a high power density. Traditional non-rechargeable thermal batteries can be stored in their solid state at room temperature for long periods of time before being activated by heating. Rechargeable liquid-metal batteries are used for industrial power backup, special electric vehiclesand for grid energy storage, to balance out intermittent renewable power sources such as solar panels and wind turbines.

Aluminium–air batteries produce electricity from the reaction of oxygen in the air with aluminium. They have one of the highest energy densities of all batteries, but they are not widely used because of problems with high anode cost and byproduct removal when using traditional electrolytes. This has restricted their use to mainly military applications. However, an electric vehicle with aluminium batteries has the potential for up to eight times the range of a lithium-ion battery with a significantly lower total weight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanobatteries</span> Type of battery

Nanobatteries are fabricated batteries employing technology at the nanoscale, particles that measure less than 100 nanometers or 10−7 meters. These batteries may be nano in size or may use nanotechnology in a macro scale battery. Nanoscale batteries can be combined to function as a macrobattery such as within a nanopore battery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valence Technology</span> Company manufacturer of lithium ion battery modules and packs

Valence Technology, Inc. was a company that developed and manufactured lithium iron phosphate cathode material as well as lithium ion battery modules and packs. The modules come in 12 V, 18 V, 24 V, and 36 V configurations. Valence's products are used in electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) such as cars, scooters, motorbikes, and commercial vehicles such as buses, delivery vans and trucks. Valence batteries are also used in wheelchairs, medical carts, robotics, marine, rail, as well as stationary applications such as remote power, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), energy storage systems, frequency regulation and switching gear.

A nanowire battery uses nanowires to increase the surface area of one or both of its electrodes, which improves the capacity of the battery. Some designs, variations of the lithium-ion battery have been announced, although none are commercially available. All of the concepts replace the traditional graphite anode and could improve battery performance. Each type of nanowire battery has specific advantages and disadvantages, but a challenge common to all of them is their fragility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric vehicle battery</span> Battery used to power the electric motors of a battery electric vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle

An electric vehicle battery is a rechargeable battery used to power the electric motors of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium-ion capacitor</span> Hybrid type of capacitor

A lithium-ion capacitor is a hybrid type of capacitor classified as a type of supercapacitor. It is called a hybrid because the anode is the same as those used in lithium-ion batteries and the cathode is the same as those used in supercapacitors. Activated carbon is typically used as the cathode. The anode of the LIC consists of carbon material which is often pre-doped with lithium ions. This pre-doping process lowers the potential of the anode and allows a relatively high output voltage compared to other supercapacitors.

The lithium-titanate or lithium-titanium-oxide (LTO) battery is a type of rechargeable battery which has the advantage of being faster to charge than other lithium-ion batteries but the disadvantage is a much lower energy density.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium titanate</span> Chemical compound

Lithium titanates are chemical compounds of lithium, titanium and oxygen. They are mixed oxides and belong to the titanates. The most important lithium titanates are:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium–sulfur battery</span> Type of rechargeable battery

The lithium–sulfur battery is a type of rechargeable battery. It is notable for its high specific energy. The low atomic weight of lithium and moderate atomic weight of sulfur means that Li–S batteries are relatively light. They were used on the longest and highest-altitude unmanned solar-powered aeroplane flight by Zephyr 6 in August 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thin-film lithium-ion battery</span> Type of battery

The thin-film lithium-ion battery is a form of solid-state battery. Its development is motivated by the prospect of combining the advantages of solid-state batteries with the advantages of thin-film manufacturing processes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid-state battery</span> Battery with solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte

A solid-state battery is an electrical battery that uses a solid electrolyte for ionic conductions between the electrodes, instead of the liquid or gel polymer electrolytes found in conventional batteries. Solid-state batteries theoretically offer much higher energy density than the typical lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachid Yazami</span> Moroccan scientist

Rachid Yazami is a Moroccan scientist, engineer, and inventor. He is best known for his critical role in the development of the graphite anode for lithium-ion batteries and his research on fluoride ion batteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium-ion battery</span> Type of rechargeable battery

Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs, SIBs, or Na-ion batteries) are several types of rechargeable batteries, which use sodium ions (Na+) as their charge carriers. In some cases, its working principle and cell construction are similar to those of lithium-ion battery (LIB) types, but it replaces lithium with sodium as the intercalating ion. Sodium belongs to the same group in the periodic table as lithium and thus has similar chemical properties. However, in some cases, such as aqueous batteries, SIBs can be quite different from LIBs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Advanced Battery Technologies</span>

Advanced Battery Technologies Inc was a publicly traded NASDAQ company with executive offices in China and Flushing, NY with three other manufacturing campuses in mainland China that specialized in the development and manufacturing/assembly of rechargeable polymer lithium-ion (PLI) batteries and electric vehicles, electric bikes and electric scooters.

This is a list of commercially-available battery types summarizing some of their characteristics for ready comparison.

A sugar battery is an emerging type of biobattery that is fueled by maltodextrin and facilitated by the enzymatic catalysts.

Research in lithium-ion batteries has produced many proposed refinements of lithium-ion batteries. Areas of research interest have focused on improving energy density, safety, rate capability, cycle durability, flexibility, and reducing cost.

References