Active

Contract Opportunity

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Advanced Functionalized Inert Anodes for Electrochemical Technologies

Functionalized inert anode material designed to provide cost-effective, robust performance in challenging environments.

The image is an illustrative example of advanced metals.

Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), offers the opportunity to explore a license and/or collaborative research agreement for this Advanced Functionalized Inert Anodes for Electrochemical Technologies. This technology transfer opportunity is part of a dedicated effort to convert government-funded research into job opportunities, businesses, and, ultimately, an improved way of life for the American people.

Overview: The demand for new and cost-effective inert anode materials with superior performance characteristics has steadily increased across various industries, such as aluminum production and molten salt reactor technology. Currently, no suitable inert anode material has been discovered that fulfills the twin targets of reduced environmental impact and low cost while maintaining regular production cycles.

Description: This innovative technology presents a composite anode fabricated by electroplating refractory and platinum group metals on a boron-doped synthetic diamond substrate. Combining these two metallic layers provides the required robustness regarding adhesion, higher electrical conductivity, enhanced heat transfer properties, and a very high degree of chemical inertness in a molten salt environment.

Benefits:

• Lower operating temperature compared to fluoride counterparts.


• Cost-effective


• Robust: excellent adhesion, electrical conductivity, heat transfer properties, and chemical inertness


• Versatile: unique manufacturing process can be extended to fabricate super-hard materials for extreme environments

Applications:

• Aluminum industry: production of engineering metals and alloys.


• Molten salt reactor technology: commercial nuclear reactor units.


• Electronics industry: thermally and electrically conducting functional graded materials.


• Automotive industry: materials that can withstand both oxidizing and corrosive environments.

Development Status: Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 2: Technology is in the concept phase.

IP Status: Provisional Patent Application No. 18/069,386, “Metal Coated Articles Comprising a Refractory Metal Region and a Platinum-Group Metal Region, and Related Methods,” BEA Docket No. BA-1225.

INL seeks to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Andrew Rankin at td@inl.gov.

Attachments/Links