OCSiAl completes SWCNT site

Luxembourg-based OCSiAl has completed construction of a 3,000 tonnes/year facility for water-based single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) dispersions in Serbia to support the manufacture of high-performance batteries. It is due to begin production in Q3.

Featuring cleanroom-operated production lines, this facility is an optimised version of the previous generation, with 15 times higher output. Much of the output is contracted with global electric vehicle producers and collaborations with the world’s largest lithium-ion battery cell manufacturers, the company said.

SWCNTs are described “an irreplicable ingredient” for silicon-rich anodes and single-crystal nickel-cobalt-manganese cathodes. They are also being introduced as a performance enabler for emerging battery technologies such as dry battery electrodes and solid-state batteries. According to OCSiAl, they outperform other carbon-based additives used in batteries, such as multiwall carbon CNTs or carbon black.