material

Tesla has released a list of direct battery material suppliers and confirmed that it has a long-term nickel deal with Vale, the world’s largest nickel producer. There’s currently a race to secure battery materials in order to support the rapid growth of the EV industry. Several players in the industry have been raising the alarm that there are going to be massive shortages of some of the key materials. Generally, the miners and refiners deal with the battery cell manufacturers and not the automakers, but the…

Scientists discovered a strategy to switch the magnetization in thin layers of a ferromagnet, a technique that could eventually lead to the development of more energy-efficient magnetic memory devices. (Artist’s concept.)Cornell researchers identified an approach to switch the magnetization in thin layers of a ferromagnet by holding the proper material at the right angle — a technique that could eventually lead to the development of more energy-efficient magnetic memory devices.The research team’s paper, “Tilted Spin…

CATL, the largest EV battery manufacturer and a major supplier for Tesla, saw its stock fall after reporting limited profits due to higher battery material costs. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., better known as CATL, has been the largest producer of batteries for electric vehicles for 5 years in a row. In recent years, it grew with Tesla by supplying most of the batteries for the electric vehicles produced at Gigafactory Shanghai. The company has roughly a 35% market share of the global EV battery market…

Inspired by seashells, scientists at Sandia National Laboratories have engineered a versatile new material that’s incredibly inexpensive, strong, lightweight, and heat resistant. The material could find use in shielding for spacecraft or fusion facilities.Seashells are notoriously tough, and that’s thanks to their unique structure of alternating layers of organic and inorganic materials. Layers of inorganic nanograins provide strength, while organic proteins “glue” them together, provide cushioning and prevent cracks from…

Sila Nanotechnologies announced that they will invest a few hundreds of millions of dollars into a new battery material factory in Washington state to support the production of up to 500,000 electric vehicles. The company described the project in Moses Lake in a new press release today: In a commitment to ensure America retains global leadership in the world’s transition to the new energy storage era, Sila, a next-generation battery materials company, today announced the purchase of a facility with more than…