SBIR Phase II: Advanced Manufacturing for Aerogels for Battery Safety Applications

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses one of the most common failure modes in electric vehicle batteries: thermal runaway. Thermal runaway occurs when a battery overheats due to an electrical or mechanical fault, potentially resulting in fire. If the fire is not effectively contained, heat can spread throughout the battery pack from heat propagation, which is responsible for electric vehicle battery fires. Automotive and battery cell manufacturers, and regulators around the world are aware of thermal runaway in Lithium-ion batteries as a risk to public safety and electric vehicle adoption. Global regulators have implemented increasingly stringent battery safety standards that have increased investments into new battery safety technologies. Aerogels are a well-known, high-performance solution that provide a barrier against the propagation of thermal runaway events within battery packs, helping to temporarily contain and suppress battery fires until passengers can reach safety. This project advances aerogel technology through improvements in scalable manufacturing, mechanical durability, and thermal performance by enabling thinner, more robust barriers for battery systems. Insulation performance is also critical in stationary storage design in uninterrupted power supplies for data centers, increasing the allowable packing density of batteries while enhancing fire prevention in the emerging digital infrastructure. By advancing the domestic aerogel manufacturing and supply chain, this technology supports U.S. economic competitiveness and technological leadership. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project supports controlled near-ambient pressure drying technology, which results in a reduction in capital expenditures, labor costs, and operation costs during production of a premium performance insulation material. This effort is focused on developing low-cost, mass-market aerogel materials driven by proprietary advancements in aerogel manufacturing, process engineering, drying methods, equipment configuration, and quality optimization. Conventional manufacturing relies on supercritical fluid extraction to remove the pore fluid from the gel matrix and is characterized by high costs, poor scalability, and excessive energy consumption. This project builds on a physics-driven ambient gas exchange process capable of extracting pore fluid from a silica gel matrix under near-ambient conditions, integrating fluid flow dynamics with materials processing across scales from nanoscale structure to macroscale production. These manufacturing advancements position aerogels as a scalable, cost-effective solution to current insulation challenges. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.