Homegrown tech company infuses new life into lead acid batteries Log 9 Materials, founded by an IIT graduate, uses graphene to increase longevity ‘TCA SHARAD RAGHAVAN ‘Ahomegron compeny, Log ‘9 Materials, has made a techy nological breakthrough in the capacity oflead acta bat teries used in motor vehicles, inverters and solar energy storage unis. “What we have so far been ableto achieve is 230% ‘improvement in the amount of charge the battery ean store,” Akshay Singhal, founder of Log 9 Materials, said in an interview, “So, ceatller ifthe storage capacity vwas for five hours, it can howrun for 65 to 7 hours? (Mr Singhal added that his company bad achieved a 35% Increase inthe longevity ‘ofthe batteries. “and the po- ‘ential for this is a 50% in- crease in capacity, and a 40% increase in thelifey he ‘sald. The breakthrough, in ‘an area that has not seen a ‘change in te materials used ‘im the last 30 years, comes ‘Watts up: Adding graphene formulation tothe battery does not require any changein the manufacturing process. with the use ofa form of car- bon called graphene. Mr Singhal, a graduate of IT Roorkle, ald that Log 9 Mia- terials started asa graphene and nanoparticles manufac ‘turers, but quickly morphea ‘to a product manufactarer: since "it makesmore senseit there are first products in the market that are ‘graphene based before the ‘market forthe material plas up “Graphene is a very thin ‘material headded. “andas thin as a. material is, the mores Its capacitance (bil ity to store an electrical charge). Graphene isa single layer of atoms closely placed together. It's the thinnest you can get. It is also very Conducting, so not only can you can store more charge, ‘butyou can withdraw it ata ‘much higher rte." “For example, ifone takes normal battery that can run four fansata time, and eee ae ea eugea wenger Reo a ee eae Tee oe ere mas Fulldi Graphene cali not only: in- crease the charge that the hrattery can hold running {our fans for three hours in- stead of the earlier two hours, forexample), but also increase the number of fll ischarges it can withstand. Apart from this, the ad- vantage of such a graphene ormulation is that adding it to the battery des not re gare any angen hema ufacturing process. "Where the manufacturer was adding, say, four powders to tite paste inside the battery, now he will have to add five ‘powders,’ Mr Singhal said.