Our technology

Zirconium’s Possibilities x DKK’s Technical Prowess

The DKK Group contributes to a sustainable society through the supply of “Valuable Products.” The “value” of “Valuable Products” is not limited to their functionality. Although not well known, Zirconia is a rare material that adds value to lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) beyond functionality, such as creating high levels of safety (“social value”) and reducing waste due to extending battery life (“environmental value”). Its use as an additive or surface treatment for LiB cathode materials reduces electrolyte decomposition and cathode component dissolution, which are causes of degradation. Its effectiveness has attracted strong praise, and it has been used by cathode material manufacturers for a long time. The electrification of vehicles in recent years means cathode materials are required to have even higher functionality in order to realize space-saving, high-capacity batteries. At the same time, pairing battery safety and service life has become an important issue, as reported in the media.

Newly developed LiB cathode additive DKZ-366

This new product achieves high dispersibility through our proprietary powder control technique. The finer and more uniform particles provide ideal protection for the cathode material and suppress deterioration. Evaluations using coin cells containing the new additive have confirmed that it extends battery life by approximately 40% after 100 charge-discharge cycles. In addition, the amount of metal impurities contained in the zirconia powder has been reduced to less than 1/10 compared to our conventional products, greatly reducing the risk of abnormal heat generation or fire due to dissolution and short-circuiting of metal impurities through the charge and discharge cycle. The new product is effective for LiBs in general, but particularly so for large-capacity LiBs, and we plan to actively promote its use in electric vehicles and other automotive applications going forward.