August 29, 2025: Canada’s NEO Battery Materials has agreed a sodium ion battery tech development deal with South Korea’s NainTech.

NEO said on August 21 the cooperation would focus on supplying energy storage systems and high-performance batteries using NainTech’s proprietary nanomaterial MXene additives.

The companies have signed a joint development agreement that will also include collaborating on drone applications.

The partners said sodium ion batteries (SIBs) would be “the first development focus” for integration into BESS systems used to support artificial intelligence data centres and power grid storage.

For drone applications, NainTech’s titanium-based MXene, will be incorporated into NEO’s silicon anode products and high-performance battery designs to improve electrical conductivity.

The firms said MXenes are two-dimensional materials that can outperform the conductivity of commercial graphene by one order of magnitude.

“SIBs have gained recognition as the de facto alternative to lithium ion batteries for energy storage, benefiting from greater resource availability and lower costs,” the companies said.

“NEO will support NainTech in developing and manufacturing SIB electrodes and full battery cells, guiding prototype design through to commercial-level deployment.”

Spencer Huh, president and CEO of NEO, said: “By expanding into electrode and cell design for SIB technology, while leveraging NainTech’s nanomaterial innovation MXene, we are advancing comprehensively for battery innovation.”