On June 15th, Solid Power, a solid-state battery startup based in Colorado, USA, announced a backdoor listing. Its backdoor target is DecarbonizationPlus Acquisition Corp III listed on NASDAQ, with the stock code DCRC. The company's latest valuation is $1.2 billion. In theory, this solid-state battery company, which Ford and BMW are betting on, should be very hot in the secondary market because it is benchmarking against Quantum Scape, a popular solid-state battery company that went public last year. However, today its stock price plummeted by 13% after announcing its backdoor listing. What's going on? Let's sort out the context here.





We published an article in early May about SolidPower being favored by Ford and BMW - "BMW Ford's $130 million bet on lithium metal solid-state battery technology.". At that time, SolidPower had just completed Series B financing - a $130 million investment led by Ford and BMW - and this big news brought this previously unknown solid-state battery company to the forefront. Solid Power was founded in 2011 and only conducted Series A financing in the following 10 years, raising a total of over 50 million US dollars. After the news of Series B financing attracted the attention of the power battery industry to it, we sorted out its patent applications in the previous article, but only found a few patent applications. Compared to other solid-state battery or silicon negative electrode battery companies we have previously introduced, the number of patent applications for this is very small.



On June 9th, Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp III, a shell company, revealed that it was in talks with SolidPower for a backdoor listing, driving its stock price up continuously in the following week, from $10.6 per share before the 9th to its highest price of $13.7 on the 14th, a 30% increase. Unexpectedly, after the official announcement of the success of the shell lending on the 15th, its stock price plummeted back to $10.4 per share, taking back all the week's gains. Online comments suggest that early listing of solid-state battery startups is equivalent to transferring technological risks to shareholders, as the reliability of their technology has not been fully verified in the early stages of completing Series B financing, and there is a possibility of eventual technological failure and company bankruptcy. Therefore, cautious secondary market investors voted with their feet and chose to temporarily observe the company's stock, causing its stock price to fall back to its original form overnight.



However, none of the above are the main points. The focus of today's article is only now.



On May 24th, Solid Power announced its core technology for the all solid state battery platform, as well as the design concepts for three types of solid state batteries. The core technology of its solid-state battery platform is its unique solid-state electrolyte. From its patent application, it can be seen that this is a solid-state electrolyte LiBS based on lithium boron sulfur elements. According to theoretical calculations, the thermodynamic stability window of this solid-state electrolyte is between 1.6V and 2.2V relative to the Li/Li+reaction, which is twice as large as the most commonly used LGPS solid-state electrolyte currently. Based on this high-performance solid-state electrolyte, Solid Power has proposed a battery platform that can solidify everything. For example, in terms of negative electrode materials, in addition to the popular solid-state lithium metal, silicon materials can also be used; In terms of positive electrode materials, in addition to the commonly used positive electrode materials for lithium batteries, new materials with lower costs and higher energy density can also be used in the future.





Therefore, the three solid-state battery design concepts they proposed include: the first generation of silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries; Second generation lithium metal solid-state batteries; Third generation high energy density cathode material solid-state batteries. The third generation design still seems to be used to make up for the numbers and occupy the pit, because it's too sci-fi. The second-generation lithium metal solid-state battery is currently the most popular solid-state battery option. The most interesting thing is the first generation design - silicon negative solid-state batteries, which is interesting.





In the same news release on May 24th, Solid Power mentioned that the company has been researching high silicon negative electrode materials since 2017 and has successfully manufactured silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries with a capacity of 2Ah using conventional lithium battery production lines. The company expects to start producing 20Ah silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries by the end of 2021, and further upgrade to 100Ah high-capacity batteries by 2022. Solid Power played a trick by announcing its B-round financing on May 9th, mentioning the production plans for the three capacity solid-state batteries mentioned above, but did not disclose that they were based on silicon negative electrodes, leading everyone to believe that SolidPower also uses lithium metal solid-state battery technology. In the information released on the 24th, SolidPower also compared the advantages of silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries and lithium metal solid-state batteries over traditional lithium batteries, as shown in the following figure. The two have achieved significant improvements in volume, weight, cruising, and price compared to traditional lithium batteries. However, if you compare the data of silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries and lithium metal solid-state batteries, you will find that there is basically no difference! I once thought that the person who made the data table forgot to modify the data after copying the table.





Why are the performance parameters of these two solid-state batteries so similar? Why did Solid Power say they only started developing silicon negative solid-state batteries in 2017, but ultimately chose silicon negative solid-state batteries as their first technology? As these questions are raised one by one, their answers seem to link up some hidden secrets one by one. So, let me have a big idea: SolidPower has been developing solid-state batteries since its establishment in 2011, with a focus on the development of solid-state electrolytes. In the first few years, its target technology was lithium metal solid-state batteries. With the gradual popularity of silicon negative electrode lithium battery technology during the same period, the company began to consider whether there were other feasible solid-state battery technology directions besides lithium metal solid-state batteries. The company began researching and developing solid-state batteries based on silicon anodes in 2017, continuously breaking through technology and advancing rapidly on this path. In just 4 years, it achieved mass production of 2Ah capacity batteries and solved the technical bottleneck of upgrading to 20Ah and 100Ah.



The latest technology release from Solid Power has once again brought the future development direction of solid-state batteries into debate. Previously, a common question people asked was: which is more reliable, lithium metal solid-state batteries or silicon negative electrode liquid batteries? And now the question will become more direct: which is more reliable, lithium metal solid-state batteries or silicon negative electrode solid-state batteries? The turning point of SolidPower's technology seems to have revealed some information. And how do we see this problem? And listen to the next breakdown.





**The article is only for communication, because the official account can not open the message function, if you have questions or suggestions, please send a message to the official account, and we will reply as soon as possible, thank you! Scan the following QR code to follow ZH Energy Storage official account.






Reference:

one https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/15/bmw-and-ford-backed-solid-power-will-go-public-via-spac-merger-in-1-2b-deal/

two https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/solid-power-unveils-all-solid-state-platform-technology-transitions-silicon-cells-to-pilot-line-301297438.html



Related articles:

BMW and Ford's $130 million bet on lithium metal solid-state battery technology

How graphene can assist solid-state lithium metal batteries, with multiple innovative solutions to choose from

Quantum Scape's Lithium Metal Solid State Battery Rush at the Bottom of Technology

How can silicon materials with 10 times energy density be used as negative electrodes in batteries?



Author Introduction:

Dr. Xie Wei, Bachelor and Master of Materials Science from Tsinghua University, and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas (Austin) in the United States. Mainly engaged in the development of energy storage batteries, has held important positions in multinational corporations and startups, led multiple research and development projects funded by the US Department of Energy, and won the 2013 US Annual 100 Best Research and Development Technology Award. Published 17 papers in top journals in materials science and energy storage, served as a reviewer for 5 international journals, and has applied for 17 international invention patents.



Introduction to ZH Energy Storage Company:

Shenzhen ZH Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. is committed to the research and development, promotion, and application of energy storage technology, aiming to help achieve China's goal of "carbon neutrality" through the application of electrochemical energy storage technology. In the early stages of development, the company focused on providing technical support and consulting services to the Chinese energy storage market by leveraging its accumulated industry experience and outstanding research and development capabilities in the field of energy storage. At the same time, the company focuses on conducting research and analysis on the Chinese energy storage market, and developing or introducing the most advanced and effective energy storage technologies for the Chinese market.

Company's technical research and development direction: water-based energy storage batteries, lithium-ion battery materials, fuel cells, ion exchange membranes, coatings and adhesives, membrane separation technology.

Domestic business: Technical cooperation and academic exchange between liquid flow batteries and high-energy density lithium-ion batteries, technical lectures on the company's technology research and development direction, research and development consulting, and guidance on paper writing.