BASF powers up in batteries and OLEDs

Investment in Sion Power, key advance with Philips
 

BASF has revealed some important advances in different areas of new energy sources. Shortly after an equity partnership was agreed with Sion Power, an Arizona-based developer of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, the company also announced a breakthrough in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology with Philips.

In 2009, BASF Future Business formed a joint development agreement with Sion Power to accelerate the commercialisation of Sion’s proprietary Li-S battery technology for electric and plug-in electric vehicles and other applications over the next decade. This has now progressed to the point of BASF taking what Sion Power CEO Dr Dennis Mangino called “a significant financial stake” in its partner.

More widely, BASF has been investing actively in the related areas of electrolyte formulations and lithium-ion cathode materials development and will start up an advanced cathode materials plant in Elyria, Ohio, later this year. All of this forms of part of the new Battery Materials business unit, a part of the US-based Catalysts division, which came into existence on 1 January. The company plans to spend over €100 million in R&D and production of advanced battery materials to 2016.

BASF’s development work with Philips, meanwhile, has now yielded OLEDs that can integrated into car roofs. They are transparent when switched off and provide light within the vehicle alone when switched on. Their sandwich structure can also be combined with equally transparent solar cells.
This work is part of the German Federal Ministry of Education & Research’s OLED 2015 initiative, now in its second phase. BASF develops organochemical materials, such as dyes, that Philips uses in the development and manufacturing of OLEDs.