Nissan has filed an international patent application for using tin in a silicon alloy with titanium in lithium ion battery anodes.

The patent application by Nissan Motors, Japan describes an anode composition based on a silicon alloy with titanium in a TiS2 form and about 8% wt/wt tin in solid solution.

Silicon alloys are part of a future generation of anode technologies set to replace current carbon anodes in lithium-ion batteries. Silicon has a much higher theoretical charge capacity of 3,600 mAh/g compared to carbon at 372 mAh/g.

The research team found that adding titanium is able to overcome some of the issues that silicon has with performance degradation in cycling expansion and contraction of the silicon. However adding the tin enabled control of the precise crystallinity of the silicon to  achieve a high charge/discharge capacity.

Other major players including General Motors and 3M have also developed silicon tin alloys for lithium ion batteries.

Nissan Motors patent application December 2017


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