The First Company Producing Materials to Enable Sustainable, More Efficient, and Quickly Charging Potassium-Ion Batteries Makes Industry Debut at 100th Birthday Celebration of Lithium-Ion Battery Inventor

Group1's Potassium Prussian White Cathode Materials for Potassium-ion batteries can sustainably bridge the emerging gap between lithium demand and supply

AUSTIN, Texas, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating Professor John Goodenough's 100th birthday, inventor of the Lithium-ion battery (LIB), Group1 today introduced itself as the world's first company to commercialize cathode materials for novel Potassium-ion batteries (KIBs).

As countries around the world transition away from fossil fuels, demand for high-quality batteries is spiking and lithium shortages are starting to emerge. Specifically, Group1 uses a machine learning-driven process to optimize its production of Potassium Prussian White (KPW) cathode materials for quick-charging, high-efficiency, and safer KIBs, which can be a sustainable and critical alternative to LIBs.

Based in Austin, Texas, Group1 is led by its three co-founders, Chief Executive Officer Alexander Girau, a YCombinator alumni who previously launched a successful battery materials company, Chief Science Officer Dr. Yakov Kutsovsky, former Chief Technology Officer of global specialty materials manufacturer Cabot Corporation, and Chief Product Officer, Dr. Leigang Xue, previously a post-doc researcher in the Goodenough Lab and KPW cathode materials' inventor.

"As our transition away from fossil fuels accelerates, the demand for Lithium-ion batteries is spiking quickly, and our lithium supplies will soon be incapable of meeting that demand. Group1 and Potassium-ion batteries can provide a viable alternative to bridge this supply gap," said CEO of Group1 Alexander Girau. "We are proud to be the first company on the market commercializing Potassium Prussian White cathode materials to create safer, quickly charging, more efficient, and sustainable Potassium-ion batteries."

Group1's KPW cathode materials offer significant upside when compared to other non-LIB battery materials for multiple reasons. Industry adoption of Group1's KPW cathode materials will be accelerated because of the materials' fit with existing graphite anode materials, electrolytes, cell design, and manufacturing for LIBs. This means that LIB manufacturers do not need to change their existing infrastructure, as it can already be used to produce KIBs that are enabled by KPW cathode materials.

Unlike LIBs, raw materials used by Group1 to create KIBs are sustainable, in that they are widely available both in the United States and internationally. The potassium used in Group1's KPW cathode materials is 1,000 times more abundant in the earth than lithium, as well as 20 times more affordable. Group1 also uses other abundant minerals domestically, whereas, to produce LIBs, companies often must import rare earth minerals from overseas, such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

KIBs produced with Group1's KPW cathode materials will deliver safety benefits over LIBs based on the use of safer electrolytes and oxygen-free materials. Further, KIBs are more efficient and faster charging than LIBs, as potassium ions in electrolytes have a smaller size and higher mobility when compared to lithium ions.

To accelerate materials development and scale-up, Group1 deploys material informatics, combining high throughput experimentation and machine learning to reduce the time it takes to develop best-in-class KPW cathode materials in half. "Using a state-of-the-art materials informatics and scale-up platform that we built from the ground up, Group1 will continually expand our intellectual property portfolio and deliver best-in-class KPW materials to our customers," said Group1 CSO Dr. Yakov Kutsovsky.

Group1's Dr. Leigang Xue invented KPW cathode materials in 2017 at Professor Goodenough's laboratory at University of Texas at Austin, the source of nearly every significant battery innovation since 1980. In 2019, Professor Goodenough was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking contributions to the field of LIBs. Group1 made its debut at Professor Goodenough's 100^th birthday celebration on July 22 at the University of Texas at Austin, which it partners with.

Founded in Austin, Texas in 2021, Group1 is an engineered materials company focusing on the commercialization of Potassium-ion batteries, expanding beyond the limitations of Lithium-ion batteries while building on the best of Lithium-ion technologies. Group1 delivers world-class, commercial-scale materials by combining high-throughput synthesis and screening with machine learning-driven material informatics. Group1 is the first company to practically enable high-power, and long-cycling Potassium-ion batteries that can meet society's future growth needs.

Media Contact:
Lincoln Zweig
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SOURCE Group1