Northern Graphite Develops and Successfully Tests Spherical Graphite Coating Procedure

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

OTTAWA, ONTARIO- Northern Graphite Corporation announces that it has developed and successfully tested a proprietary process for coating spherical graphite which is the final step before it can be used as an anode material in lithium ion batteries. SPG is manufactured from the flake graphite concentrate produced by graphite mines. Prices range from $3,500 per tonne uncoated to over $10,000 per tonne for coated SPG.

Lithium battery cell testing of Northern’s coated SPG indicates a higher total capacity and slightly better first cycle efficiency than the commercial materials which were tested. Northern’s SPG has a reversible capacity of 368 mAh/g which is very close to the theoretical maximum of 372 mAh/g. Dr. Edward Buiel, founder of Coulometrics,LLC and Northern’s partner in developing the coating procedure, stated that: “Large flake graphite from the Bissett Creek deposit has a uniquely pristine crystal structure. The low degree of disorder requires little or no thermal processing and naturally leads to a high degree of reversible capacity for LiB applications. The large pristine flakes also have natural advantages in terms of battery purification and yield during spheronizing that can lead to lower production costs.”