Additives for Li-ion Batteries & PFAS-Free Batteries 2026-2036: Technologies, Players, Forecasts

IDTechEx's report "Additives for Li-ion Batteries and PFAS-Free Batteries 2026-2036: Technologies, Players, Forecasts" provides a detailed deep-dive into the fast-evolving additives for Li-ion batteries market. The report provides crucial insights into the markets for binders, conductive additives, and electrolyte additives in Li-ion cells, analyzing how factors such as the threat of PFAS regulation, emerging production processes, and the rise of silicon anodes will impact the market. Granular 10-year forecasts highlight how the additives market will grow to be an over US$18 billion opportunity by 2036.

 

 

While there is no standardized definition of what a battery additive is, the term is used to describe materials that are added to cell components in small amounts to provide specific performance advantages. This does not include major components within the cell, such as active materials, electrolyte solvents, or current collectors. Instead, IDTechEx's report defines additives as materials that are added to a component of the cell in weight compositions of no more than 10%.

 

The role of additives within the cell and their potential performance advantages are immensely varied. Binders are polymers that hold together the current collector, electrode active materials, and other additives, forming an electrode that is more durable and longer-lasting. PVDF is the most common binder for cathodes and CMC/SBR is widely used in anodes. Conductive additives such as carbon black help create conductive pathways within the electrode that can improve its capacity and ensure proper electronic conductivity. Electrolyte additives possess incredible variety in their chemical structure - including materials such as lithium salts, organic carbonates, and compounds containing fluorine, phosphorus, boron, and more. Their applications are equally varied, ranging from corrosion resistance to SEI formation to flame retardance.

 

IDTechEx's "Additives for Li-ion Batteries and PFAS-Free Batteries 2026-2036: Technologies, Players, Forecasts" covers all of the above types of battery additives in great detail. Outside of these, other additives such as current collector coatings, dispersants, and pre-lithiation additives play important roles in the production and application of Li-ion cells which are also discussed in IDTechEx's report.

 

The additives market is growing quickly thanks in large part to the rapid increase in demand for Li-ion batteries from EVs, energy storage applications, and consumer electronics. As the world continues to electrify, different applications will exert different demands on their Li-ion cells, with additives set to play an important role in this differentiation. The development of new additive materials is therefore being driven by the need to optimize and differentiate battery performance along multiple parameters while ensuring that energy density and cost needs are still met. IDTechEx's new report evaluates additives through this lens, laying out the role each additive has to play in an evolving battery industry.

 

There are also tradeoffs to be found in the quantities of additives used. Additives are inherently inactive components that add weight and volume to the overall cell. Their loading quantities will be a compromise between the benefits they can provide and the potential energy density penalty that comes with their use, and manufacturers aim to use as little of an additive as possible to achieve their desired performance level.

 

 

The "Additives for Li-ion Batteries and PFAS-Free Batteries 2026-2036: Technologies, Players, Forecasts" report dives into how wider industry trends affect additive demands of cells. Dry electrode processes - where electrode production is carried out without solvents or slurry formation - are gaining traction as a lower cost and more sustainable means of manufacturing. However, the binder demands of dry electrodes are wholly different than that of conventional processes, with PVDF and CMC/SBR making way for PTFE and a plethora of other potential binders.

 

Shifts are also taking place in the conductive additives space, where falling prices and growing commercialization of CNTs and graphene means they are supplanting carbon black. The growth of silicon anodes too creates unique demands for additives, with silicon's high volume change during cycling requiring advancements across binders, conductive additives, and electrolyte additives, as highlighted in the IDTechEx report.

 

PVDF - the primary cathode binder used today - and PTFE are PFAS polymers, and there are plenty of other PFAS or otherwise fluorinated materials used as electrolyte additives too. With the increasing recent scrutiny around PFAS for its health and environmental impacts, and the looming threat of regulation, there has been a surge in development for non-PFAS additives for the Li-ion industry. In the "Additives for Li-ion Batteries and PFAS-Free Batteries 2026-2036: Technologies, Players, Forecasts" report, IDTechEx has conducted state-of-the-art analysis into the non-PFAS alternatives that exist today, highlighting their potential uses as binders or electrolyte additives, emphasizing key players, shedding light on the most recent academic breakthroughs in the space and how they might disrupt the additive market.

 

The ubiquity of PFAS in modern-day battery production and the accelerating need for clean energy means that PFAS will not be easy to remediate from the industry. But between emerging alternatives, processing improvements, and other suitable mitigation strategies, there are multiple avenues for PFAS remediation within the battery industry in the near-term. Recent developments from players like Leclanche and Elyte in removing PFAS from their products suggest that the industry may not be far away from commercializing the first PFAS-free battery cells!

 

This report provides critical market intelligence into the market for Li-ion battery additives, including:

 

Analysis of the additive market landscape

 

Binder technologies and trends

 

Evolution of conductive additive markets

 

Electrolyte additive trends

 

PFAS remediation in battery additives

 

Market forecasts

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