Critical Battery Materials Initiative

Self-driving labs as technology accelerators

As a result of a gap identified in Canada’s battery materials midstream supply chain between critical mineral mining and battery manufacturing, the initiative supports the establishment of self-driving labs and collaborative projects to accelerate and link discoveries in new battery materials with more economically and environmentally sustainable approaches to processing battery minerals.

Two technology platforms are being developed to deliver on the initiative's objectives:

1. Midstream battery minerals processing acceleration platform (BattPAP): Self-driving labs and machine learning approaches to develop more efficient and sustainable processing pathways to produce battery materials from raw and recycled source materials
2. Battery materials acceleration platform (BattMAP): Self-driving labs and machine learning approaches to discover new battery materials with optimized performance, safety and sustainability characteristics

Novel battery materials discovery

The initiative accelerates the discovery and synthesis of new high-performance battery cathode active materials (CAMs), precursors (pCAMs) and electrolytes, with a focus on the following areas:

• Nickel-rich, high-performance cathodes for lithium-ion batteries
• Cobalt-free layered oxide and olivine cathodes
• High-voltage liquid and solid electrolytes
• Advanced materials characterization and accelerated cell-level performance evaluation
• Scale-up of materials production from gram to kilogram batches in scalable continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs)

Critical mineral conversion to battery precursors

The initiative accelerates midstream process optimization, with a focus on the following areas:

• Nickel-rich and Canadian-sourced feedstock digestion using advanced online process control
• Co-precipitation of pCAMs using advanced in situ reaction monitoring and automated control systems
• Scale-up to mini-pilot CSTR demonstrations

Battery materials recycling and critical mineral recovery

In addition to processing raw critical mineral feedstocks, the initiative accelerates the conversion of recycled battery materials to pCAMs, with a focus on the following areas:

• Black mass digestion and co-precipitation using advanced online process monitoring and control
• Investigation of alternatives to conventional unit processes and reactants, including solvometallurgy
• Quantification and control of contaminants from feedstock

Life cycle assessment for the Canadian battery value chain

Team members will work together to produce life cycle inventory datasets and engage with collaborators to benchmark environmental impacts of new materials and processing pathways developed for the domestic battery value chain against those of the incumbent battery value chain.

Meet the team

Collaborate with us

Grant and contribution funding is available through the NRC's National Program Office for eligible collaborators who offer complementary expertise. At this time, we are seeking interested industry small and medium-sized enterprises with the capacity to incorporate R&D outputs in pre-commercial or commercial stages. Funding may include contributions to collaborative R&D and for equipment needed for research in fundamental areas. Learn more about funded collaborative R&D programs and initiatives at the NRC.