[Edaily Reporter Park Jung-Soo ] NANOBRICK Co., Ltd.(286750), a manufacturer of rechargeable battery materials, has begun securing intellectual property (IP) rights for key process technologies aimed at reducing the manufacturing costs and improving the performance of silicon anode materials.
NANO. Co., Ltd. announced on the 4th that it submitted a response to the Office Action (OA) from the Korean Intellectual Property Office and applied for expedited examination to swiftly secure the rights to the “Silicon Anode Material Manufacturing Process” patent, which was filed late last year.
The core of this technology lies in simultaneously performing surface modification—to enhance the performance of silicon anode materials—and carbon coating—to ensure conductivity—in a single process. NanoSilican explained that while the conventional method primarily involved conducting these two processes separately—which increased the number of process steps and potentially raised manufacturing costs—it has integrated them into a single process to improve process efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs.
Subsequent patent applications related to this technology are also underway. In August, NanoSilican filed a second and third patent application, which supplement and improve upon the existing technology.
These subsequent patents outline methodologies for precisely controlling and quantitatively measuring changes in the silicon surface that occur during the simultaneous surface modification and carbon coating processes.
In particular, the third patent focuses on addressing the issue of declining Initial Coulombic Efficiency (ICE), which is considered a limitation of silicon anode materials. It proposes a mechanism to improve ICE by applying a pre-lithiation process during the material manufacturing stage.
Through this series of patent filings, NanoSilican plans to proactively secure intellectual property (IP) for core technologies related to silicon anode materials and strengthen its technological competitiveness in the next-generation battery materials market.
A NanoSilican official stated, “This series of patent applications is significant in that it establishes a proprietary technological foundation capable of simultaneously resolving the issues of high manufacturing costs and declining initial efficiency, which have long been considered major obstacles to the commercialization of silicon anode materials.” The official added, “We will utilize the expedited examination system to secure IP early on and continue to strengthen our technological competitiveness in the next-generation battery materials market.”