Eight German partners are collaborating in a project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, to develop new technologies and components that can be used to produce lithium-ion batteries more efficiently and in a way that conserves resources.

The revoLect project (“High-efficiency electrodes with ultra-light fabric-based current collectors for lithium-ion batteries”) is pursuing two key innovations: replacing the usual metal foils with a metallized fabric structure and using silicon as the anode material.

The project partners intend to pool their expertise along the entire battery production process chain and develop novel electrodes with lightweight fabric-based current collectors for lithium-ion batteries using a resource-saving technology. The process requires less use of primary raw materials such as copper and aluminum compared with previous lithium-ion batteries.

At the same time, the technology enables further material savings from the cell to the system level through higher energy density. As part of the project, the “Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components” (PEM) of RWTH Aachen University is to develop processes for coating the fabric-based current collectors with slurry-based electrode materials.

Among other things, the pilot plant for cell production will be adapted to process the novel materials. In addition, the RWTH facility is investigating the design and production of the battery cells.

Particular attention is paid to the contacting of the electrode sheets. Since they are not made of aluminum or copper, alternative processes to the usual ultrasonic welding may have to be used here.

Subsequently, the battery cells are to be tested with regard to their performance, and the respective values are compared with those of reference cells. These reference cells will also be manufactured at PEM and constructed with copper or aluminum foils as current

The project partners are:

• PEM of RWTH Aachen University
• Institute of Experimental Physics of TU Freiberg
• Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology of TU Dresden
• Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP)
• elfolion GmbH
• Porcher Industries Germany GmbH
• ROMONTA GmbH
• Customcells Holding GmbH

The project runs through 31 August 2025.