The founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-out Ambri, formerly known as Liquid Metal Batteries, is in Sydney this week, continuing efforts to set up a collaborative R&D base.
Renew Economy reports that Donald Sadoway, of Professor of materials chemistry at one of the world’s top-ranked graduate engineering and technology universities, said the company was looking to further develop its technology with the University of Newcastle.
“What I did was not so much the invention of a battery, but the invention of a battery field,” Sadoway, told Renew Economy.
“There are so many different metals and so many different salts, so having a team here would enhance that.”
There was also the possibility of a manufacturing hub, perhaps in three years, he said.
The company’s electrochemistry technology uses “two liquid electrodes [which] are separated by a molten salt electrolyte, and these liquid layers float on top of each other based on density differences and immiscibility.”
These are claimed to have a working life of 300 years and keep 99 per cent of their storage capacity after 10 years of continuous use. The company aims to have their product installed for grid-scale applications.