International. The company has closed an initial funding round of $5.15 million led by Primavera Capital Group, with participation from Rhapsody Venture Partners and MassVentures.
Harvard's Office of Technology Development has granted an exclusive technology license to Adden Energy, a startup that develops innovative solid-state battery systems for use in future electric vehicles that would be fully charged in minutes.
The license and funding will allow the startup to expand the Harvard lab prototype toward commercial deployment of a solid-state lithium-metal battery that could provide reliable and fast charging for future electric vehicles.
Developed by researchers in the lab of Xin Li, associate professor of materials science at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), the lab-scale coin cell prototype has achieved battery charge rates of up to three minutes with more than 10,000 cycles over a lifetime. with results published in Nature and other journals.
"If we want to electrify vehicles, a solid-state battery is the way to go. We set out to commercialize this technology because we consider it unique compared to other solid-state batteries," said Professor Xin Li.
"We have achieved between 5,000 and 10,000 charge cycles over the life of a battery in the lab, compared to 2,000 to 3,000 best-in-class charge cycles, and we see no fundamental limit to expanding our battery technology. That could be a game changer," he added.
The battery also features a high energy density and material stability level that overcomes the safety challenges posed by other lithium batteries.
"Full electrification of the vehicle fleet is one of the most significant steps we can take to combat climate change," said Adden Energy CEO William Fitzhugh.
"However, the widespread adoption of electric vehicles requires batteries that can meet a diverse set of consumer needs," Fitzhugh added, noting that, for example, 37 percent of Americans don't have garages at home, so overnight charging at home isn't possible.
"To electrify this segment, electric vehicles must be recharged at times comparable to internal combustion vehicles, essentially in the time you would currently spend at the gasoline pump."
The company's goal is to expand the battery to a palm-sized cell and then move to a battery for large-scale vehicles in the next three to five years.
Luhan Ye, chief technology officer at Adden Energy, said: "Typically, lithium metal anodes in other solid-state designs develop dendrites, twig-like growths that can gradually penetrate through the electrolyte to the cathode. We defeat the growth of dendrites before they can cause damage through new structural and material designs."
"As a result, the device can maintain its high performance for a long service life. Our recent study shows that this nice feature can also be maintained in the expansion," Ye added.
