Addendum to St. Andrews research on Manganese spinels:
(yahoo post 9000):
>> For those not in, Mn spinel Li-ion batteries have been commercially produced and available since 1996 when Moli Energy, Canada (NEC has a big stake in it) introduced them, both round and prismatic cells. So the statement by P. Bruce (St. Andrews (ed)) is a bit misleading.
Secondly, everybody and his uncle has been trying to dope Mn spinel with anything in the periodic table to improve its high temp stability and capacity (its theoretical capacity is 148 mAh/g vs. 115-120 seen in practice).
Third, this is still too low compared to Co (140 mAh/g) or Co-doped Ni oxide (160-180, but is it safe?).
The spinel research at St Andrews has been going on for quite some time (*), but they are not the leaders; their work has always been sort of academic in focus, and a few duds have been presented as breakthroughs. Be skeptical.
The leaders in Mn spinel are Tarascon and Amatucci of Bellcore, and (boy, I forgot his name, used to be in S. Africa, but now at Ames NL; sorry for the temporary lapse...). The rest is playing catch-up. >>
* (A previous post noted more specifically that P. Bruce has been active for 15-20 years with this research.)
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Now I consider what else we don't know about Valence's patent portfolio...and that, like we now find them well in the lead with respect to high-speed production using manganese spinel, they may be well in the lead on materials 'that will obsolete their own products' (quote from Lev Dawson, last summer).
At the meeting, the patent count was given as:
211 issued, 16 allowed (=granted, will issue shortly), 135 pending (submitted and under review), 85 in preparation (Valence scientists and attorneys doing paperwork), and 147 'disclosures' (inventions, concepts, etc., in internal company review).
*Something's* cooking.... |
