May 24, 2006 – Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTI) announced it has completed a safety testing cycle for lithium ion battery products that it says is a step forward in the effort to develop lithium ion batteries that are safe enough to be used in electric-powered automobiles.
Although lithium ion batteries are the predominant power source for cell phones, laptop computers and many other small electronic devices, there are safety concerns related to the potential for explosion.
Altairnano has developed a nano-structured material called nano Lithium Titanium Oxide (nLTO) that replaces the graphite used in standard lithium ion batteries. The company says that series of safety tests conducted over the past few months have shown that Altairnano’s nLTO remained safe under conditions where standard graphite-based cells typically smoke, vent and explode.