The research group of OCU Special Appointment Professor Takeji Takui (Graduate School of Science) and Osaka University Associate Professor Yasushi Morita has developed minor(rare)-metal-free organic molecule spin batteries that exceed the storage capacity of existing lithium-ion batteries (150–170 Ah/kg) by 1.3–2 times, using organic spin molecules as the cathode active material.

Current high-performance lithium-ion batteries use a cathode active material that contains cobalt, a minor metal for which there are safety and raw material price concerns. This research result can play an important role in fundamentally solving these issues.

The research group used trioxotriangulene, an organic material produced from petroleum, instead of cobalt. This is a big step in solving the problems of soaring raw material prices and the competition to secure minor metals that have accompanied the worldwide rapid increase in lithium-ion batteries. At the same time, the current research results also offer a new paradigm of the design guide for the development of next generation batteries.

The research results were published in the Letters section of Advance Online Publication (AOP) of Nature Materials magazine (UK) on 16 October, 2011 (Japanese standard time:17 October, 2:00 am).

• Publication: Nature Materials
• Article title: Organic Tailored Batteries Materials Using Stable Open-Shell Molecules with Degenerate Frontier-Orbitals
• Authors: Yasushi Morita,* Shinsuke Nishida, Tsuyoshi Murata, Miki Moriguchi, Akira Ueda, Masaharu Satoh, Kazunori Arifuku, Kazunobu Sato & Takeji Takui*

For a summary of the article, please see:
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nmat3142.html