News: Zhenli New Materials received tens of millions of yuan in angel round investment

Figure: The company's self-developed high-performance ultra-thin composite copper foil

The current collector is an indispensable and important component of lithium-ion batteries. The positive and negative electrodes of lithium-ion batteries are equipped with different current collector materials, the positive electrode is aluminum foil and the negative electrode is copper foil.

However, due to the limitations of traditional current collectors, such as thermal runaway risks and weak performance, the composite current collector material industry has been developed. Composite current collectors play an important role in improving the safety of lithium batteries, reducing material costs, and increasing energy density. They are considered to be important materials for the next generation of lithium batteries. According to a report from Gaogong Industry Research Institute, it is expected that by 2030, the penetration rate of composite current collectors in the battery current collector market will reach 40%, and the shipment volume will reach up to 18 billion square meters. Its application range is also very wide, covering various types of batteries such as power, energy storage, and digital.

Figure: Schematic diagram of composite current collector structure

The year 2023 is considered by the industry to be the first year for the commercialization of composite current collectors. The first order for composite current collectors has been completed, realizing the industry's progress from 0 to 1. Listed companies including Baoming Technology, Doublestar Materials and Nord are all planning composite current collectors.

In 2005, the coating technology group of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was established, focusing on the research of high-performance and low-cost coating preparation technology. In 2010, the team independently developed the first generation of high-efficiency magnetron sputtering coating deposition equipment and completed the precipitation of core technology. Since then, the coating technology group has continuously iterated the performance of equipment and honed its own technical advantages for the common problems of high-efficiency preparation of advanced coatings. In 2016, the team established Shanghai Zhizhen New Energy Co., Ltd. and began the industrial application of coatings to accumulate industrial experience. In the following years, the team expanded its research direction, carried out key breakthroughs around the advanced preparation technology of key materials for lithium batteries, and achieved a technological breakthrough in 2022, realizing the preparation of the first generation of composite current collector products.

Based on the technological accumulation over the past 20 years, the team currently has key technological advantages in the equipment, material, and process ends, including high-speed and low-temperature magnetron sputtering technology for flexible ultra-thin substrates, cross-scale high-throughput material forward development technology, and directional control technology for coating microstructures.

Dr. Li Xiaobo, the company's founder, chairman and general manager, said: "The one-step dry method of magnetron sputtering is conducive to reducing costs and increasing efficiency of composite current collectors. In terms of performance, it effectively solves the industry's bottleneck problems such as insufficient density of the coating, weak bonding between the film and the substrate, and poor in-plane conductivity; in terms of cost, it effectively improves production efficiency and yield, and achieves a significant reduction in material costs."

The company's vision is to "forge a world-class material innovation and technology enterprise and create an excellent platform for the spiritual and material well-being of employees". It is committed to building a hard-working team that "continues to innovate, works hard, is customer-centric, and pursues dreams". Guided by material innovation and industrial development and based on strivers, the company cooperates with customers, shareholders and partners to achieve win-win results and rapid development!