Battery Potential

In this episode, we sit down with Joe Turner, Principal at Lithium Junction, for a candid and entertaining look at the boots-on-the-ground reality of lithium-ion cell manufacturing. Joe shares his journey starting at the front lines of the early battery industry at Valence Technology, where he faced multiple challenges including material yields and cell gassing. We then follow Joe’s move to China in 2006 with K2 Energy Solutions, where he worked to scale up 26650 LFP cylindrical cells. Joe pa...

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Yuan Gao, a materials scientist and executive whose career spans the foundational days of Li-ion research to the executive suites of global cathode manufacturing. Yuan shares his accidental entry into the battery field during late-night shifts with Jeff Dahn, leading to foundational post-doctoral work on manganese spinel cathodes in the mid-1990s. We explore his subsequent tenure at FMC Corporation, where he contributed to solving critical impedance and s...

Join us as world-renowned electrochemist Dr. Karim Zaghib shares his incredible journey through the history of lithium-ion batteries. Bridging academia and industry, Dr. Zaghib discusses his early research in Europe in the 80s and his front-row seat to Japan's 1990s battery boom. We also dive into his pivotal work commercializing LFP and LTO technologies at Hydro-Québec alongside legends like Michel Armand and John Goodenough, and his current views on how to shape the future of battery develo...

Bill Howard brings more than five decades of hands-on experience to the history of battery development, starting at Gould National Batteries in the 1960s and finishing with Medtronic in the 2010s. Bill walks us through multiple battery chemistries from Leclanché cells, to Li/MnO2 cells, to LTO/LCO Li-ion cells and more. He covers how Medtronic learned to manufacture Li-ion batteries in the USA by licensing technology from E-one Moli in Canada. Bill provides a unique perspective on the perform...

What powers the NASA spacesuit? Dr. Eric Darcy shares the learnings of his 38 year career designing safe battery packs at NASA. Learn about how NASA came to adopt Li-ion cells and where they sourced them from. Eric explains the considerations and strategies taken when designing safe packs for space missions.