Bandung Visit: preparing facilities and collaborating with B4T

On Monday, 9 November 2020, the NBRI Team visited Cimahi Workshop and Balai Besar Bahan dan Barang Teknik (B4T). This visit was the implication of the national research project (PRN) activities. The activity began with visiting the Battery Workshop in Cimahi to ensure the progress of equipment ability to produce NMC cathode active material with capacity of 1 kg. Team can see the various process equipment that has been made there, such as mixers, continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), vacuum filters, etc. In addition, various discussions held for the availability of the tools and adding the various utilities needed. It is hoped that by the end of this year, the tools will be ready to be used for the National Research Priority (PRN) in BSD Techno Park. 

The visit continued to B4T in the Dago area, Bandung to strengthen cooperation with National Research Priority activities, especially in the process technology of making NMC 811 cathode materials. Starting with a forum group discussion (FGD) then a visit to the battery laboratory and characterization at B4T. Some of the topics discussed were the development and the implication of the national research priority (PRN) work that has been done by B4T. In addition, commercial NMC111 and NMC811 active cathode materials were given from NBRI for B4T. After the FGD was completed, the entire team was invited to visit the B4T battery laboratory. The focus of B4T battery research is manufacturing lithium ion pouch batteries. Various equipment there is available in semi-automatic forms, such as semi-automatic machines and battery formation. B4T has succeeded in making the active material of the NMC111 cathode that is characterized by in-situ XRD to have the same peak as the NMC111 standard, although there are still found impurity peaks of Li2(CO3). Until now, B4T continues to make optimizations to obtain the best active material quality of the NMC111 cathode by varying the amount of Li2(CO3) added. Research progress in the B4T team has been a trigger for enthusiasm, especially for the NBRI millennials team to always work hard and give the best contribution for Indonesia through national research projects.