Stratus Materials Announces Achievement of Key Performance Milestone for Its LXMOTM Li-ion Battery Cathode Active Material

Stratus Materials Inc., a company focused on the development and commercialization of advanced cathode active materials (CAMs) for lithium-ion batteries, today announced that its first generation LXMO CAM material has achieved a significant milestone associated with the cyclical sustainability in electric vehicle applications. .

This month, pouched cells containing LXMO exceeded 1,000 full discharge cycles while retaining more than 80% of their original capacity, a common goal across the entire electric vehicle battery industry. Third-party manufactured cells used standard cell and electrode designs, employing a natural graphite anode and standard industrial component electrolyte, to work in conjunction with the Stratus cathode material. Cells in the test group retained 82-86% of their initial capacity and were expected to exceed 1,200 cycles before reaching 80% of their initial capacities. At the same point of 1,000 cycles, the average discharge voltage of the cells remained at around 97%, dropping only 0.1 V from their initial values. The cells’ excellent capacity and voltage stability surpass the energy retention of many commercial materials used today.

Jay Whitacre, CEO and CTO of Stratus Materials (and professor at Carnegie Mellon University), said: “These cells have been operating for 10 months and clearly demonstrate that our proprietary materials are capable of meeting the sustainability needs of the electric vehicle industry. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a minimal loss of cell voltage has been documented for this class of materials. The Stratus team looks forward to building on these strong technical results as we improve, commercialize and increase production in the coming quarters.

Stratus products fall into the category of lithium manganese rich cathode active materials (LMR). LMR cathodes have attracted considerable interest in the Li-ion battery and electric vehicle industries due to several very promising attributes, including high energy density, low cost and high safety. However, despite being in development worldwide for more than two decades, LMRs have not yet been commercially deployed due to several lingering technical challenges – primarily the voltage and capacity instability issues that Stratus Materials has largely overcome this, as its latest results demonstrate. With its continued technological advancements, Stratus Materials is focused on delivering the first fully functional LMR-class CAMs suitable for large-scale commercial use.

Scott Pearson, President and Chief Compliance Officer, added: “We are excited to show that our first-generation LXMO material can exceed this EV cell durability goal while providing a very compelling set of benefits over existing CAMs. We hope that this proof will be one of many that we will offer to our industry partners and customers.

Stratus is currently producing materials on its existing pre-pilot production line in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has ongoing sampling efforts with many leading companies in the electric vehicle and electric vehicle battery industries. As previously announced, the company will increase its production capabilities from pre-pilot scale to pilot scale later in 2024.