BASF has inaugurated a R&D lab and application technology centre for battery materials in Amagasaki, Japan. The 600 m2 facility, located in the Amagasaki Research Incubation Center (ARIC), is BASF's first combined battery materials research and development (R&D) and application technology operation in Asia Pacific. “The new Amagasaki Battery Materials Lab will enable us to extend our successful R&D network with research institutes and the battery manufacturing industry into Japan,” said Dr Peter Schuhmacher, president process research and chemical engineering at BASF. The Amagasaki laboratory will focus on developing electrolytes and electrode materials for high-performance lithium ion batteries. The laboratory will combine organic and inorganic synthesis, analytics and electrochemical testing within one group. This can improve the understanding of how different materials such as electrodes and electrolytes interact with each other in battery applications. The company will also make use of existing BASF teams that are researching chemistry for use in organic photovoltaic cells and electronic materials.