Eonix secures Phase I SBIR from the National Science Foundation
Summary
Eonix, a start-up researching batteries and a member of Cohort 2 of Innovation Crossroads, recently received a $256,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). He will continue to do research out of the Spark Innovation Center lab space trying to create an anode-free lithium-ion battery.Were going to be straining dozens of chemistries to make it possible with the system we developed at Oak Ridge National Lab originally, he said, referring to his Innovation Crossroads research.DeRosa is aiming to have a battery that charges in 30 minutes and will have a 35 percent increase in energy density. Thats all stemming from the fact that theres no anode on there, he said.In addition to the lab space DeRosa uses at Spark, he recently rented additional office space at the University of Tennessee Research Foundation Business Incubator. The UT space has room for three employees.Launch Tennessee also recently announced that matching funds for SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards have been reinstated in the state budget (read more in this teknovation.biz article). I think that will help us hire additional people, accelerate the development of this product, and hopefully bring us to market and allow us to manufacture it stateside quicker.