ITRI in Taiwan Energizes Lithium Battery Development With STOBA

Nano-grade high-molecular material

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan, regarded as the leading R&D center on the island engaged in pushing ahead various cutting-edge technologies, has again given Taiwan a bigger, more credible role in power storage development: the ITRI recently won a globally-renowned R&D Magazine's R&D 100 Award for developing STOBA, the high-safety lithium battery material, hence further advancing the island's progressive involvement in lithium battery technology.

The ITRI, in fact, proved in 2008 that its R&D capacity equals that of international heavyweights as Intel, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory etc., by winning the R&D 100 Award the second consecutive year with its AC-LED technology.

Recapitulating the R&D Magazine, the ITRI says that its STOBA technology has multiple advantages to build stable business opportunities in the future, adopts eco-friendly material, and is high performance, hence its receipt of a 2009 R&D 100 Award.

Talent Scout

For 47 years, the widely-recognized R&D Magazine has been a talent scout of sorts, helping to not only identify revolutionary technologies introduced to the market, but also highlighting such potentially life-quality-improving creations with the R&D 100 Awards, providing the key impetus often needed to achieve commercial success. Many of the honorees have become household names, according to the ITRI, adding also that winning an R&D 100 Award basically qualifies a new innovation as one of the most creative of the year, as well as keeping up to date industry, government and academia.

The annual R&D contest receives more than 1,000 submits worldwide, which are judged by recognized, leading experts in different fields. Life today would not be nearly as convenient, enjoyable without the mankind-improving platform set up by the R&D Magazine, especially considering a sample of the past winners: the auto teller machine in 1973, facsimile machine in 1975, LCD monitor in 1980, printer in 1986, Kodak Photo CD in 1991, and the high-definition TV in 1998.

STOBA Explained

J.M. Liu, director general of the Material and Chemical Research Laboratories (MCL) under the ITRI, says that the lithium battery is one of the most important power storages for modern electronics and future transportation vehicles, yet also one of the most unstable of its kind.

According to the MCL, about 3.1 billion lithium batteries were produced globally in 2008. Such sizable number underlines the importance of the high-density energy storage device to power so many consumer electronics and EVs. Notwithstanding, safe lithium batteries were simply unavailable in the past as the instability issue had not been fully resolved, says Liu.

The ITRI has changed the situation with the STOBA. “The newly-developed STOBA can greatly enhance the safety of lithium batteries,” says Alex Peng, MCL's deputy general director, adding that the technology has won nine patents in 29 projects, which will push Taiwan's lithium-battery industry up the hierarchy globally.

Protective Film

MCL's deputy general director Alex Peng, says that STOBA (self-terminated oligomers with hyper-branched architecture) is a nano-grade high-molecular material integrated into lithium batteries to automatically form a protective film. “When a lithium battery is overly heated, impacted or pierced, the STOBA immediately stops the electro-chemical reactions hence triggered to prevent short-circuiting that generates excessive heat, consequent fire hazards to achieve significant safety upgrade. So STOBA-integrated lithium batteries are much safer for 3C (computer, communication, and consumer electronics) or electrical vehicles (EV).”

Most safety problems related to lithium batteries arise due to continual thermal increase within resulting from excessive ambient heating, overcharge, short circuit etc. Core temperature rises melt the separator film between the anode and cathode to cause short circuits. Once the inner temperature rises to 180C, the node material begins to dissolve, generating heat and gas to trigger fire or explosion.

Tested to Global Standards

The STOBA technology has been tested for shorting and piercing in experiments that surpass international safety standards, MCL says, adding that “currently STOBA is the only technology worldwide using innovative, nano-grade material that has fundamentally overcome the lithium battery safety issue.”

Some credit has to go to J.P. Pan, the division director of the R&D team at the MCL. After years of repeated experiments, fine-tuning and focused effort, the R&D team eventually made history by discovering the nano-grade STOBA featuring heat-resistance, fair bonding and flexibility. Besides effectively resolving the safety problem in lithium batteries, adopting STOBA also lengthens the high-temperature recycle-life of such power storage by over 20%.