The work at Proton Power, Inc. (PPI) to develop batteries made with PPI turbostratic graphenes continues to deliver excellent results. 

Since 2020, PPI has been building and testing coin cell batteries where the graphite normally used in Li-ion batteries is replaced with PPI’s proprietary blend of its turbostratic graphenes.

Below is a summary of the achievements to date of PPI batteries compared to their lithium-ion (Li-ion) counterparts:

• PPI batteries can hold 2x the storage capacity compared to Li-ion batteries.
• PPI batteries re-charge 30x faster than Li-ion batteries.
• PPI has built over 3000 coin cell batteries for testing.  Of those, approximately 500 have been tested or are in testing currently, and the “oldest” of those have lasted for more than 2900 charge cycles – compared to 1000 charge cycles that can be delivered over the lifetime of a typical Li-ion battery.
• Unlike Li-ion batteries that degrade in capacity over time, the capacity of PPI batteries actually increase over time.

In addition, PPI turbostratic graphene batteries are safer than Li-ion batteries.  The fire dangers of Li-ion batteries are well known and have resulted in significant property damage, injuries, and even deaths.  The risk of fires is significantly reduced with PPI batteries, because the PPI turbostratic graphene blend that is used instead of graphite conducts heat 11x faster than the graphite used in Li-ion batteries – which means that heat is dissipated instead of building up inside the battery.

PPI turbostratic graphenes are derived from renewable, sustainable Pro-C® biochar via a proprietary PPI process.  The Pro-C® biochar, in turn, is produced from clean, renewable biomass using PPI pyrolysis units, so the entire process has a very small carbon footprint – approximately 90% less than the environmentally dirty processes used to produce graphite.

The key to all of this is the turbostratic nature of PPI graphenes – which is different from conventional graphenes.  In “normal” graphenes, layers of carbon atoms are stacked vertically in direct alignment, one on top of the other, but in PPI’s turbostratic graphenes, the carbon layers are “twisted” relative to each other.  That small difference in structure makes huge differences in the ability of the turbostratic graphene to conduct and store electricity and in its ability to transfer heat.  That leads to better performance in PPI batteries.