Natural anode-grade graphite to enter the EV race

Cecilia Jamasmie | March 17, 2021 | 6:11 am Battery Metals United States Battery metals Graphite 
Natural anode-grade graphite to enter the EV race
Urbix’s lithium-ion battery fabrication facility. (Image courtesy of Urbix Inc.).

A new natural anode-grade graphite known as Coated Spherical Purified Graphite (CSPG) may start soon competing with synthetic anodes.

According to the company developing the material, US-based Urbix, Inc., lab tests have shown that the CSPG maintains the energy density of natural flake graphite, while still providing the longer life cycle and consistency of synthetic graphite.

The Coated Spherical Purified Graphite maintains the energy density of natural flake graphite, while still providing the longer life cycle of synthetic graphite

The spherical graphite is also 20 to 30% cheaper than its artificial counterparts.

“This new product will be less expensive than synthetic, yet have all of the same properties and capabilities (…) such as higher specific capacity and discharge rates,” Urbix CEO, Nico Cuevas, said in a media statement.

The CSPG is being developed using a process know as spheroidization and it is being tested at the firm’s lithium-ion battery fabrication facility in Mesa, Arizona, where trials are conducted at temperatures from -30 to 80°C under fast charge and discharge conditions.  

“The testbed includes a high precision coulometry system along with precision temperature-controlled chamber, battery cyclers and various electrochemistry tools to work on full and half cells,” Palash Gangopadhyay, Urbix’s CTO, said in the brief. “This will fast track Urbix’s ability to serve the existing as well as upcoming CSPG market using state-of-the-art tools to measure physical- and electrochemical properties.” 

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