1. Why is it so difficult for a battery material that works in the laboratory to maintain the same performance when its production is scaled up?

When a material is developed in the laboratory, work is usually carried out with very small quantities and under highly controlled conditions. However, as production is scaled up, many factors come into play that can alter its properties, such as mixture homogeneity, temperature distribution, reaction times or the final morphology of the particles.

The major challenge is to ensure that the material maintains the same electrochemical performance when moving from a few grams to hundreds of grams or even kilograms. It is not simply a matter of producing a larger quantity, but of reproducing the process consistently in order to obtain a material with the same quality and the same performance.

That is why scale-up is a critical phase in battery development. Validating that a material retains its behaviour as production increases helps reduce technological risk and brings innovation closer to real industrial application.

2. When a company develops a new material, what are the main technical challenges that arise when moving from grams to hundreds of grams or kilograms?

The main challenge is that many of the parameters that work at small scale no longer behave in the same way when production volume increases. Aspects such as heat transfer, mixing of the reactants, stirring speed or residence time can change significantly and affect the structure and quality of the material obtained.

In addition, as the quantity produced increases, it is essential to guarantee process reproducibility. Industry needs every batch to present the same properties, since small variations in composition, particle size or homogeneity can lead to differences in battery performance, safety or lifetime.

For this reason, scale-up is not simply about increasing production capacity, but about understanding how the process evolves and adjusting the conditions so that the material robustly and reproducibly maintains the performance achieved in the laboratory.

3. Which synthesis process parameters are most critical to ensure that a material preserves its properties when production is scaled up?

The most critical parameters depend on the technology and the material being developed, but some are common to most processes. Temperature, reaction time, heating and cooling rates, mixture homogeneity, synthesis atmosphere and calcination conditions all directly influence properties such as particle size, composition, crystallinity or material morphology.

The challenge lies in controlling all these variables so that the material obtained at a larger scale is equivalent to the one developed in the laboratory. Only in this way is it possible to ensure that it maintains the same electrochemical performance and that the process is reproducible, which is an essential requirement for future industrialisation.

4. There is increasing discussion around next-generation materials, such as lithium-rich materials or silicon-containing compounds. What challenges do these materials pose from the point of view of scale-up and validation?

Next-generation materials offer enormous potential to improve the energy density, autonomy and sustainability of batteries, but they are also much more sensitive to manufacturing conditions. Materials such as lithium-rich compounds or silicon-containing materials require very precise control of the synthesis process in order to maintain their properties when production is scaled up.

In addition, these materials often present further challenges related to their stability, processability or integration into the cell. A material may show excellent behaviour in the laboratory, but that does not guarantee that it can be manufactured reproducibly or that it will maintain that performance during electrode processing or battery assembly.

That is why validation is an essential stage. It is not enough to demonstrate that a material works; it is also necessary to verify that it can be produced consistently and that it behaves as expected under conditions close to those of an industrial application.

5. In many cases, obtaining a good material is not enough. Why is it so important to validate how it behaves during processing and integration into a cell?

A material may present excellent properties from a chemical point of view, but that does not guarantee that it will behave in the same way during battery manufacturing. Its processability is just as important: it must be possible to transform it into a homogeneous electrode, maintain its stability during processing and ensure compatibility with the other cell components without losing performance.

For this reason, validation does not end with material synthesis. It is essential to verify its behaviour throughout all manufacturing stages and to assess its performance in a full cell. Only then is it possible to determine whether a technology is truly ready to make the leap from the laboratory to an industrial application.

6. What mistakes or limitations do you most often encounter when a company tries to scale up a new material for the first time?

One of the most common mistakes is to think that scale-up simply consists of increasing the amount of material while keeping the same laboratory conditions. In reality, when the scale changes, aspects such as heat transfer, reactant mixing or process kinetics also change, so the manufacturing parameters need to be adapted and optimised.

Another frequent limitation is focusing only on the properties of the material and not on process reproducibility. For a technology to reach industry, it is not enough to obtain a good result once; it is essential to demonstrate that the material can be manufactured consistently, with the same quality and performance in every batch.

7. Looking ahead to the next five years, which technologies or research lines do you think will have the greatest impact on the development of battery materials?

In the coming years, we will see a strong focus on materials capable of increasing energy density, improving safety and reducing dependence on critical raw materials. In this context, technologies such as lithium-rich materials, silicon anodes and sodium-based chemistries will continue to gain prominence, as they respond to some of the industry’s main needs.

However, the success of these technologies will not depend solely on their performance in the laboratory. It will be essential to develop synthesis and manufacturing processes that make it possible to produce these materials reproducibly, sustainably and at a competitive cost, while also ensuring their integration into cells with reliable performance.

For this reason, research will increasingly move towards an integrated approach, in which the development of new materials goes hand in hand with their scale-up, validation and transfer to industry. Reducing the time between a scientific discovery and its commercial application will be one of the sector’s major challenges.

8. How does CIC energiGUNE help reduce the technological risk faced by companies that want to take a new material from the laboratory to pre-industrial validation?

At CIC energiGUNE, we support companies in one of the most complex phases in the development of a new technology: the transition from a laboratory recipe to validation under conditions that are representative of industry. Our goal is to reduce the uncertainty associated with scale-up by optimising synthesis processes and verifying that the material maintains its properties as production increases.

To do this, we work not only on material manufacturing, but also on its processing and integration into a cell. This allows us to evaluate its behaviour under conditions closer to a real application and to identify potential limitations before the company undertakes larger-scale investments.

In this way, we help our partners make decisions based on solid technical evidence, reducing development times and minimising technological risk before moving towards industrialisation or large-scale production.