Argonne’s Process R&D and Scale Up Group bridges the gap between research and commercialization. By conducting scalable process research and development, Argonne researchers enable the transition of new materials and technology to the market, providing support to manufacturers that typically don’t want to take on the financial risks associated with process scale-up and development for materials that haven’t been validated.

Typically, materials invented in the Discovery Stage of research are produced in gram quantities. Initial processes can be scaled to produce materials up to hundreds of grams. Scaling to kilogram or larger scale can require substantial process modifications, and until that step occurs, economics, product consistency and quality are uncertain.

Focus Areas

Although Argonne’s program today focuses almost exclusively on battery materials, our expertise and facilities available can be applied to nearly any material scale-up process. These include:

• Developing scalable manufacturing processes
• Developing analytical methods and quality control procedures
• Investigating purity and impurity profile impact on performance to establish material specifications
• Preparing technology transfer packages
• Preparing fully characterized kilogram quantities of the material available for industrial evaluation and prototyping
• Evaluating emerging materials synthesis technologies to improve productivity