In this new instalment of the Behind the Battery series, two German students came to Canada for one reason: to study at the Jeff Dahn lab at Dalhousie University. Now they are helping solve the global battery material shortage

In 2021 and 2022, German students Sebastian Büchele and Tom Bötticher arrived on the Dalhousie University campus to start six-month internships at the world-renowned lithium-ion battery research centre: the Jeff Dahn Research Group.

Büchele got there first.

The mechanical engineer wasn’t in awe of Halifax, then awash in monotonous November-grey sleet, but he was ecstatic about the opportunity.

“I chose [Dalhousie] because I wanted to learn as much as possible,” says Büchele.

Six months later, Tom Bötticher walked onto campus (by then transformed into a picturesque springtime urban garden) to begin his placement at the Dahn labs during his Master of Chemistry degree.

The pair only met in Halifax briefly; at the end of one six-month internship and the beginning of the other. But, in the three-day overlap, Büchele told Bötticher about his startup idea to solve a problem for sodium-ion battery researchers around the world.

“[Industry players] are not interested in giving cathode material to research groups, because it’s basically their secret sauce,” says Büchele.

“For research groups, it was nearly impossible to find any active materials specifically for the cathode to do their own research. The idea was to optimize and scale up a cathode active material, in our case, so-called Prussian White material, and sell this to research groups worldwide, so that they can actually do serious research on sodium-ion batteries.”

Bötticher says he was so inspired he designed a logo for the then-dream company on the spot.

Büchele returned to Germany and started a research position at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to develop and scale up material. After a year of development, he was ready to found the company, with Bötticher joining as a co-founder.

But, says Büchele, “It all came to life in Canada.”

The genesis of Litona

Büchele remembers exactly where he was when the dream of his company — eventually named Litona (a suggestion from Dalhousie lab head and world leading lithium-ion battery scientist, Jeff Dahn) — morphed from an idea to a reality.

It was wintertime and Michael Metzger, a Dalhousie battery researcher and the Herzberg-Dahn chair for advanced battery research, was outside the Dahn labs.

“Michael had COVID and he wasn’t allowed to go to the lab. He didn’t feel too bad, so, he still wanted to do something,” recalls Büchele. “He was like, ‘Can you please bring me some of my exams that I have to correct? [They are] in my office.'”

A few minutes later — and at an appropriate social distance — Büchele slid Metzger a stack of exams through the car window. Then, standing on the sidewalk shivering in the sub-zero weather, he pitched his idea for a company that would supply universities and labs around the world with sodium-ion cathode active material.

“[Michael] was like, ‘Yeah, do it,'” recalls Büchele. “‘You have to do it.'”

When Büchele’s internship ended he returned to Germany and did exactly that.

A gap to fill

Despite the widespread success of lithium-ion chemistry, sodium-ion based batteries are a far cheaper (though less energy dense) alternative.

The problem Litona is working to solve is this: academic and research facilities around the world have a problem with access to the sodium-ion battery materials they need to do their research and advance the chemistry.

“We couldn’t find any cathode material for our research group,” says Büchele. “If those active materials are not there…half of the research is just not possible.”

Addressing this challenge is what led to Litona.

“[Litona] now has material that is optimized and scaled up. And we have customers all over the world that are now doing research with our material,” says Büchele.

Longterm vision

The official founding date of Litona is August 2023. Since then, Büchele and Bötticher have been working flat out to get the company’s Prussian White cathode powder to market.

“We are the first sodium-ion battery cell startup overall in Germany. So, things are just getting into position,” says Büchele. That includes lining up their former professor, Michael Metzger, to be a scientific advisor to the company, securing labs, forming partnerships and securing capital.

In a true millennial Cinderella story, Litona’s first seed investment came from a YouTube meet-cute.

“They were really the perfect first stage investors,” says Bötticher of German investors, Interface Capital.

“They actually found us through my YouTube channel. I told them about our startup and they were…immediately willing to invest in us.”

The start-up funding allowed Litona room to research and develop its Prussian White. Now, with product in hand and initial proof of engineering complete, Litona is ready for another growth spurt.

“We are currently in the middle of testing the upscaling of our cathode powder production to a two- to three-digit kilogram [per] week range. We will soon be testing the resulting powder at our new lab in Ulm, Germany,” said Bötticher in a recent email.

“[Litona] will start its next financing round once those tests are done and once our upscaling process has been successfully completed (in the next couple of weeks).”

Büchele and Bötticher are in it for the long haul with a plan to grow Litona into a global supplier for sodium-ion energy storage materials — all the while acknowledging its maple-flavoured roots.

“There was really just a special energy in Canada,” says Bötticher.