Eneos Materials Corporation has established a laboratory equipped with pilot-scale facilities capable of battery evaluation in Nantong, China (Nantong Technical Centre), in collaboration with SCM Industrial Chemical Co (based in Shanghai, China). It recently held an opening ceremony for the pilot lab together with SCM.
Founded in 2006, SCM is a major Chinese trading company in the field of specialty chemicals, and is engaged in supplying battery materials to major electric vehicle (EV) and battery manufacturers in China.
Eneos already has laboratory functions in Japan, Europe, and China, and worked with SCM to completely renovate their existing lab and jointly introduced cutting-edge pilot-scale equipment capable of battery manufacturing, it says.
By equipping the lab with evaluation equipment and technologies equivalent to those used by its customers, it aims to accelerate the development of battery binders and expand its business not only in the Chinese market but also globally.
“We have already begun exploring collaborations with select customers,” Eneos added.
Eneos’s battery binder is a water-based binder developed for forming the anodes of lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries.
Compared to conventional binder (PVDF), Eneos says its battery binders use SBR latex to provide binding capability, electrolyte resistance, and cycling characteristics.