The Donut Labs new and promising solid state battery

[onetrack]

I thought I'd start a new discussion here, as we kind of messed up the Knob Engine discussion with a rapid twist to electric developments, and the new, promising Donut Labs solid state battery that DL is promising huge and extraordinary things from.

 

I'm very sceptical of the Donut Labs claims and promises, and this young bloke (below), who runs a YouTube channel on electric developments, has visited the latest Donut Labs display stand at CES 26, and tried to extract more details about their new battery, than Donut Labs is currently prepared to release. As always, he gained little by way of productive or informative discussions, as Donut Labs are holding all their cards tightly to their chest.

 

However, he has done some scouting around, and dug up who DL has partnered with, to try and define the direction that DL is heading. DL has partnered with another Finnish outfit called Nordic Nano who are developing solid state battery technology - but many are questioning whether Nordic Nano is simply developing supercapacitors, and calling them batteries.

The generally-accepted problem with supercapacitor design, is trying to develop a supercapacitor that can release its energy in a controlled manner over a lengthy period of time.

 

All the supercapacitor technology I know about, is all about releasing a lot of energy in a short time frame - which can be useful for spurts where substantial extra power is needed - but which is not really a viable source of steady power over a lengthy period of time.

This young bloke ends up, like myself, being sceptical of DL's claims and promises, and especially so, as they promise a huge jump in lifespan, charging cycles, charging speed, and energy levels, with their new solid state battery.

 

We will need to see someone opening up one of DL's new and amazing batteries, once it becomes readily available, so the design and technology can truly be examined with an independent eye.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 02:30 PM by onetrack

[Moneybox]

So nothing new there. I watched the interview in the previous video and the outcome is that any details that relate to design and chemistry remain a secret. The interesting part is that they are making outlandish claims regarding the battery charge time, lifespan and capacity. There are a lot of skeptics claiming that it must be a super capacitor however a super capacitor cannot meet their claimed capacity of 400 WH/Kg. 

 

I like to think their claims are real and we have a new revolutionary designed battery that'll make electrical energy more safe and affordable.  The Australian government are meant to be investing heavily into battery manufacture but we're yet to see that come to fruition as well.

[BurnieM]

What does a patent search reveal ?

To meet their claims I would expect a lot of new patents.

If they do not exist then they are probably reworking existing technologies which implies smaller gains in capability.

 

Not to say that they may not have some good ideas but I am guessing that they are much earlier in the development phase than they would like us to believe.

Perhaps the hype comes from fund raising to actually develop the product ?

 

[sfGnome]

One of the issues with patents is that if you release them gradually, and a competitor issues a patent that references one of your earlier ones, then your later patents can be claimed to be dependent on your competitor’s one. Hence, some development companies with a big new idea will hold the info really tightly against industrial espionage and then file an enormous set of patents in one sitting. A company I used to work for did this, and one time they walked into a patent office in the USA with two trolley loads of new patents.  

[BurnieM]

I understand this approach and it works if you already have the funds for full product development.

Does not work if you are trying to raise funds for development.

 

So we are in wait and see mode now, with no purchases from retail customers.

 

Edited Monday at 01:14 AM by BurnieM