The main objective of our most important project in the short term is the development of innovative hybrid nanostructured materials based on carbon and silicon (C-Si) that will be applied as component in devices for energy storage.

NanoShare 4.0 Srl is setting up its industrial growth and connected business plan on the development of innovative chemical vapour deposition techniques and reactors to build nanostructured carbon supports for silicon deposition that will be used as anodes in Li-ion batteries. These new materials will provide higher specific capacitance than traditional anode materials and longer life cycle than C-Si composites prepared so far by scientific community.  The new knowledge deriving from participation in research project represents a necessary side activity to widen the horizons of the company's core business, keeping an up to date know how and allowing it to expand the offer of products available.

Specifically, the fabrication process will be oriented to practical applications such as lithium ion accumulator anodes based on a double mechanism: the formation of lithium-silicon alloys and the intercalation of lithium in carbon. The project is focused on a synthesis method for C-Si nanomaterials production, which will be able to control shape, size and morphology of the hybrid material and on their scaleup at industrial production rate. To this purpose advanced analytical methods like electron microscopy and spectroscopy techniques able to provide information on the fine details of the synthesized nanostructures before and after their testing in electrochemical applications, and in particular about the chemical-physical interface of nanoscale C-Si will be used. The study and modeling of carbon and silicon interaction will provide crucial information about adhesion, charge transfer mechanisms and their energetical barriers, that will lead to further investigations for the material optimization.

NanoShare 4.0 Srl, thanks to leading knowledge owned by the research team, has the necessary know-how to compete in the current reference market, and in future challenges concerning the development of new products and knowledge in the sectors relevant to the current project. The presence in the Company team of researchers belonging to University and research institution like ENEA, will ensures a valuable technological support and the availability of up to date know how. The cooperation with qualified research institution is in fact a key point in the Company strategy necessary to accredit the developed products in the relevant technological frame.

In the medium term, NanoShare 4.0 Srl future projects will deal with the optimization of CVD process and the realization of even more innovative nanostructured hybrid materials conjugating the properties of the two components in the most performant way. An important long-term goal will also be, besides the technical improvements in the performance of Li-ion batteries related to the peculiar nanostructure of this material, the Adoption of a virtuous policy of circular economy. For example, the construction of a C-Si electrode in which the Si phase is obtained from the processing of rice husk, an important by-product of the agri-food industry, available in large quantities at reasonable price, whit a high percentage of natural nanostructured silica in its carbon matrix. Such a process would use a low cost waste from the most consumed food in the world as secondary raw material for the advanced battery industry.