Ilika Technologies Limited

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Motor Corporation

Johnson Matthey Public Limited Company

University of Southampton

Toyota Motor Europe Nv/sa

Ionex Limited

Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells Limited

Brian Elliott Hayden

Christopher Edward Lee

Duncan Clifford Alan Smith

Chihiro Yada

Jonathan Conrad Davies

Thierry Le Gall

Laura Mary Perkins

Louise Turner

Thomas Risbridger

Laura Jane Offin

Shoji Yokoishi

Thomas Foley

Owain Clark

Jean-Philippe Soulie

Hiroshi Suyama

Alexandros Anastasopoulos

Mark Stephen Beal

David Thompsett

Philip Nigel Bartlett

Samuel Guerin

Xiaojuan Lu

Kyriakos Giagloglou

William Richardson

Alexandra Teodora Anghel

Duncan Clifford Smith

Karen Marie Brace

Michael Waite

John Robert Owen

Gianfranco Aresta

Claire Mormiche

David Michael Laughman

Isotta Cerri

Andrea Elizabeth Russell

Christopher Vian

Kieren Bradley

Kyle James Hutchings

Hugo Jungius

Robert Noble

Patrick Casey

Jean-Philippe Soulié

Nadeem Rizvi

Isabel Alexandra Domingues Tarroso Gomes

Tetsuo Nagami

Duncan C A Smith

Sara Aghdaei

Philip Tucker

Sergey Yakovlev

Duncan Smith

David Laughman

Louise Hannah

Christopher E Lee

Karen Brace

A method is provided for fabricating a component material for a battery cell. The method comprises the steps of: providing a partially-fabricated battery cell, the partially-fabricated battery cell comprising a substrate having a planar deposition surface consisting of a first face of the substrate and a first battery component layer provided on the planar deposition surface, the substrate having a plurality of further surfaces, the planar deposition surface and the plurality of further surfaces defining the body of the substrate therebetween; wherein: the first battery component layer contains charge-carrying metal species and has an exposed surface; one or more electrically conductive or semi-conductive pathways extend through at least a portion of the substrate, each of the one or more pathways connecting the planar deposition surface to one of the plurality of further surfaces; and the partially-fabricated battery cell is held in position within a deposition chamber by a holding structure and each site of connection between one of the one or more pathways and the holding structure is electrically insulating; the method further comprising the step of depositing a second battery component layer on the first battery component layer, wherein the depositing comprises forming a plasma within the deposition chamber.

Method of fabricating a component material for a battery cell

A method of processing a stack of layers to provide a stack of discrete layer elements, comprises the steps of: providing a stack of layers comprising: #a first layer () provided by a first material; #a third layer () provided by a solid electrolyte; and #a second layer () located between the first and third layers, the second layer having a thickness of at least 500 nm and being provided by a second material comprising at least 95 atomic % amorphous silicon; removing a through-thickness portion of the first layer () to form a first discrete layer element () provided by the first material; removing a through-thickness portion of the second layer () to form a second discrete layer element () provided by the second material, the second discrete layer element being located between the first discrete layer element () and the solid electrolyte; and etching the third layer () using the second discrete layer element () as an etching mask, to form a third discrete layer element () provided by the solid electrolyte; wherein the first, second and third discrete layer elements provide the stack of discrete layer elements.

Method of processing layered structures

Provided is a composition comprising: (a)a principal phase that is provided by a layered mixed metal oxide having a rocksalt structure belonging to the R-3m space group; the layered mixed metal oxide comprising the following component elements: 45 to 55 atomic % lithium; 20 to 55 atomic % of one or more transition metals selected from the group consisting of chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt, and combinations thereof; and 0 to 25 atomic % of one or more additional dopant elements selected from the group consisting of: magnesium, calcium, strontium, titanium, zirconium, vanadium, copper, ruthenium, zinc, molybdenum, boron, aluminium, gallium, tin, lead, bismuth, lanthanum, cerium, gadolinium and europium; wherein said atomic % is expressed as a % of total atoms of said layered oxide, excluding oxygen; (b)a minor phase that is provided by a metal oxide that does not have the crystal structure of the layered mixed metal oxide, the minor phase comprising one or more of the transition metals contained in the layered mixed metal oxide, the transition metals being selected from the group consisting of chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, and cobalt. Methods of making the composition and electrodes and cells, especially solid-state batteries, containing the composition are also provided. The rough morphology of the crystals confers advantages compared with smoother crystals of similar chemical composition, particularly in solid-state batteries.

Composition, methods for its production, and its use

A method of processing a thin film structure comprising: providing a thin film structure comprising a stack of two or more thin film layers supported on a surface of a substrate, the stack having a depth orthogonal to the substrate surface; and forming a cut through the depth of the stack by using a direct write laser technique to scan a laser beam along a scan path covering an area of a desired cut line on a surface of the stack to ablate material of the stack along the cut line and through the depth of the stack at least to the surface of the substrate; wherein the direct write laser technique is implemented using an ultrashort pulsed laser outputting pulses with a duration of 1000 femtoseconds or less, at a wavelength in the range of 100 to 1500 nm, and delivering a fluence in the range of 50 to 100,000 mJ/cm2.

Laser processing method for thin film structures

The present invention provides a vapour deposition method for preparing an amorphous lithium borosilicate compound or doped lithium borosilicate compound, the method comprising: providing a vapour source of each component element of the compound, wherein the vapour sources comprise at least a source of lithium, a source of oxygen, a source of boron and a source of silicon, and, optionally, a source of at least one dopant element; providing a substrate at a temperature of less than about 180° C.; delivering a flow of said lithium, said oxygen, said boron and said silicon, and, optionally, said dopant element, wherein the rate of flow of said oxygen is at least about 8×10m/s; and co-depositing the component elements from the vapour sources onto the substrate wherein the component elements react on the substrate to form the amorphous compound.

Vapor deposition method for preparing an amorphous lithium borosilicate

A catalyst for a fuel cell anode comprises an alloy of Pd and at least two other transition metals, at least one of which which binds to hydrogen and/or carbon monoxide at least as strongly as Pd does. Suitable transition metals which bind more strongly are Co, W, Ti, V, Cr, Fe, Mo, Nb, Hf, Ta, Zr and Re. PdCoW is the most preferred alloy. The catalyst is used on the anode of a hydrogen oxidising fuel cell, such as a PEMFC to catalyse the hydrogen oxidation reaction.

Metal alloy catalysts for fuel cell anodes

A composition consisting essentially of a perovskite crystalline structure includes ions of a first metal M1 which occupies an A-site of the perovskite crystalline structure and ions of a second metal M2 which occupies a B-site of the perovskite crystalline structure. M2 has two oxidation states capable of forming a redox couple suitable for reversibly catalyzing an oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and an oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The composition also includes ions of a third metal M3 at least a portion of which substitutes for M1 in the A-site of the perovskite crystalline structure, and at least a portion of which optionally also substitutes for M2 in the B-site of the perovskite crystalline structure. At least some of the ions of M3 have a different oxidation state to the ions of M1. The composition also includes atoms of an element X, which is a chalcogen.

Composition

A lithium borosilicate composition, consisting essentially of a system of lithium oxide in combination with silicon oxide and boron oxide, wherein said lithium borosilicate comprises between 70-83 atomic % lithium based on the combined atomic percentages of lithium, boron and silicon, and wherein said lithium borosilicate is a glass, is disclosed.

Lithium borosilicate glass as electrolyte and electrode protective layer

A vapour deposition method for preparing an amorphous lithium-containing oxide or oxynitride compound not containing phosphorous comprises providing a vapour source of each component element of the compound, including at least a source of lithium, a source of oxygen, a source of nitrogen in the case of an oxynitride compound, and a source or sources of one or more glass-forming elements; heating a substrate to substantially 180&#xb0; C. or above; and co-depositing the component elements from the vapour sources onto the heated substrate wherein the component elements react on the substrate to form the amorphous compound.

Vapour deposition method for preparing amorphous lithium-containing compounds

A vapor deposition method for preparing a multi-layered thin film structure comprises providing a vapor source of each component element of a compound intended for a first layer and a compound intended for a second layer, wherein the vapor sources comprise at least a source of lithium, a source of oxygen, a source or sources of one or more glass-forming elements, and a source or sources of one or more transition metals; heating a substrate to a first temperature; co-depositing component elements from at least the vapor sources of lithium, oxygen and the one or more transition metals onto the heated substrate wherein the component elements react on the substrate to form a layer of a crystalline lithium-containing transition metal oxide compound; heating the substrate to a second temperature within a temperature range of substantially 170&#xb0; C. or less from the first temperature; and co-depositing component elements from at least the vapor sources of lithium, oxygen and the one or more glass-forming elements onto the heated substrate wherein the component elements react on the substrate to form a layer of an amorphous lithium-containing oxide or oxynitride compound.

Vapour deposition method for fabricating lithium-containing thin film layered structures

A core-shell composite material may include a core consisting of Nb-doped TiOof formula TiNbO; and a shell consisting of a homogeneous layer of Pt or Pt alloy of 1 to 50 ML in thickness. The core-shell composite material may in particular find application in fuel cells.

Cost-effective core-shell catalyst with high electrochemical stability

A mixed metal oxide material of tungsten and titanium is provided for use in a fuel cell. The material may comprise less than approximately 30 at. % tungsten. The mixed metal oxide may form the core of a core-shell composite material, used as a catalyst support, in which a catalyst such as platinum forms the shell. The catalyst may be applied as a single monolayer, or up to 20 monolayers.

Composite materials

A mixed metal oxide material of tantalumand titanium is provided for use in a fuel cell. The material may comprise between 1 and 20 at. % tantalum. The mixed metal oxide may form the core of a core-shell composite material, used as a catalyst support, in which a catalyst such as platinum forms the shell. The catalyst may be applied as a single monolayer, and is preferably between 6.5 and 9.3 monolayers thick.

A mixed metal oxide material of tin and titanium is provided for use in a fuel cell. The mixed metal oxide may form the core of a core-shell composite material, used as a catalyst support, in which a catalyst such as platinum forms the shell. The catalyst may be applied as a single monolayer, or up to 20 monolayers.

Mixed metal oxide material of tin and titanium

The present invention provides a vapour deposition process for the preparation of a phosphate compound, wherein the process comprises providing each component element of the phosphate compound as a vapour, and co-depositing the component element vapours on a common substrate, wherein the component elements react on the substrate to form the phosphate compound.

Vapour deposition process for the preparation of a phosphate compound

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Southampton, United Kingdom

Brian Elliott Hayden