Sila Nanotechnologies, a next-generation battery materials company, is bringing to market the most significant breakthrough in battery chemistry in 30 years — the technology to replace graphite anodes — which will usher in a new era of energy storage. Sila’s silicon anode chemistry dramatically increases the energy density of batteries, reducing battery size without sacrificing safety or performance. Sila’s new battery is now commercially available in WHOOP 4.0, the latest fitness and health wearable from WHOOP.
Read more: WHOOP Acquires Sports Tech Startup PUSH To Unlock Deeper Strength-Training Insights
The Sila anode is the first next-gen lithium-ion material available on the market. Designed to offer economical manufacturing at a global scale, our unique technology is poised to electrify the future, while delivering transformational benefits to the mobile industry today.
The technology also facilitates the development of new and unique product features for mobile devices not previously possible due to energy density and battery size constraints - better cameras, augmented reality/virtual reality sensors, wireless charging, 5G speeds, and sensors for continuous health monitoring, reports BusinessWire.
“After 10 years, 55,000 iterations, and over a 1,000x manufacturing scale up, the Sila team is the first to industrialize and now make commercially available a new type of lithium-ion chemistry with dramatically higher energy density. Our next-generation materials will drive radical change in product innovation, freeing consumers and device makers from having to choose between better design, more features, and battery performance,” said Gene Berdichevsky, CEO and Co-Founder of Sila. “We are running out of time to transition from the fossil fuels economy to the energy storage economy. The path to a sustainable future will be paved with great products and Sila is proud to be enabling those products today.”
WHOOP 4.0, the most advanced 24/7 fitness and health wearable, is the first product in the market to use next-generation silicon anode materials. Powered with Sila science, WHOOP 4.0 is a smaller, sleeker product with 17 percent higher energy density—enabling a 5-day battery life and enhanced sensors for improved fitness tracking. These advances were achieved without altering existing manufacturing processes, making it faster and easier for WHOOP and its battery manufacturing partner to incorporate Sila materials into its newest wearable.
Read more: Apple Watch’s Future Band Design Could Boost Battery Life
“One of the greatest barriers to advancing the design of wearable technologies has been the weight and size of the battery technology available,” said John Capodilupo, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer at WHOOP. “With Sila, all that has changed. We’ve been able to transform WHOOP 4.0 from its previous version and load it with new features and capabilities, without battery performance compromise. Just as we have leveraged this new battery advancement to push the wearable industry forward, Sila’s technology has the potential to enable exciting design innovation in other categories and products.”
