Sixonia is a German supermaterial company building what it describes as the next generation of 2D additive materials — specifically, eGraphene, a functionalized, few-layer graphene designed to replace or supplement conventional conductive additives like carbon black and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in battery electrodes, separator coatings, and surface interfaces.
Founded in 2017 as a spin-out from the Technical University of Dresden, Sixonia sits at the intersection of advanced materials science and commercial battery manufacturing. Its core proposition is straightforward: deliver a material that outperforms industry-standard additives on conductivity while costing a fraction of the price of premium alternatives. With €2.6 million in total funding secured and a phased production scale-up already under way, the company is moving from academic origins toward industrial supply — making its eGraphene increasingly relevant to cell manufacturers, material suppliers, and battery system integrators worldwide.
Key Facts & Figures
- Founded: 2017 (TU Dresden spin-out)
- Headquarters: Dresden, Germany
- Total Funding: €2.6 million (as of 2025)
- Current Production Capacity: 50 t/a (semi-automated pilot production)
- 2026–2027 Target Capacity: 1,600 t/a (autonomous containerized modular units)
- 2028 Target Capacity: Up to 50 million t/a dispersion (decentralized gigafactory supply)
- Conductivity vs. Carbon Black: 52× more conductive
- Cost vs. SWCNTs: Up to 30× cheaper
- Patents: 10+ globally granted
- R&D: 10 years
Company Background & Market Position
Sixonia emerged from research at the Chair for Molecular Functional Materials within TU Dresden’s cfaed excellence cluster. The company’s founding in 2017 marked the beginning of a decade-long R&D effort to transform laboratory graphene exfoliation processes into commercially scalable production methods. The transition from research concept to funded industrial startup was formalized in 2025, when the company completed its management team and announced total funding of €2.6 million.
The company operates in the broader advanced materials sector, with its primary commercial focus directed at battery electrode additives, separator coatings, and interface primer applications. Sixonia is a Graphene Flagship partner, having collaborated on silicon-graphene composite development for lithium-ion anodes under EU-funded programs.
As a private company in an early commercialization phase. However, Sixonia confirms proof-of-concept projects with cell producers and material suppliers across NMC cathodes, LFP cathodes, silicon-rich anodes, and lithium-metal interfaces — a range of chemistries that positions eGraphene broadly across the battery supply chain.
Interview with Sixonia’s Co-Founder and CEO Martin Lohe
In a recent BetterE Podcast episode recorded during Simon Voß’s BetterE Expedition, Voß visited Sixonia in Dresden to speak with co-founder and CEO Martin Lohe and commercial lead Jan Drechsler. Their conversation centers on Sixonia’s “e-graphene,” a graphene-based conductive additive designed to be easy to process at industrial scale while keeping the electrical benefits that battery makers care about.
Lohe, a chemist by training, traced Sixonia’s roots back to a university spin-out and early industry projects starting in 2015–2016. Over time, batteries kept coming up as the application with repeatable wins across customer trials—and the scaling potential to match a growth plan. Drechsler joined later, as the team moved from many application tests to a focused go-to-market choice. He described entering batteries “headfirst,” supported by an industry that, in his words, has been open in helping newcomers understand players, processes, and expectations.
A major issue in the graphene world, Lohe explained, is that production methods typically force tradeoffs between quality and usability. Mechanical routes can preserve properties but create material that clumps and is difficult to disperse; chemical oxidation is more workable but damages performance. “Graphene is not just graphene. It’s a family of materials,” Lohe said, and Sixonia’s approach reflects that: an electrochemical exfoliation process that also adds small functional groups, improving dispersion without destroying conductivity.
In batteries, the most common use case is as a drop-in conductive additive in electrode slurry, aiming to replace carbon black or carbon nanotubes. Drechsler noted that conductive additives are only a small fraction of the electrode, but they can take meaningful space away from active material. Sixonia points to around 1% loading for e-graphene versus 3–5% typical for carbon black, which can translate into more room for active material and improved energy density. Depending on chemistry and integration, the team has seen up to a three-times improvement in rate capability, including results at charge rates as high as 20C in some cases.
Commercially, Sixonia reports about 30 tonnes per year of dispersion capacity today and is working toward its first offtake agreement after a customer completed roughly three years of validation. The company also closed a €2.85 million pre-seed round with a production-focused holding company, reflecting a strategy where manufacturing scale-up matters as much as lab proof.
The broader message from Dresden was simple: Europe’s battery ambitions will depend on more than adding capacity. Performance and cost still decide winners, and collaboration speeds both. As Lohe put it, “Don’t cook in your own little pot.” For readers building materials, cells, or supply chains, the takeaway is to push co-development early—and to design technologies that fit existing production realities.
Manufacturing Capacity & Infrastructure
Sixonia’s manufacturing model departs significantly from conventional centralized materials production. Rather than building large, fixed-location factories, the company is developing autonomous, containerized modular production units capable of being deployed at or near customer facilities — including gigafactories.
Current capacity stands at 50 metric tons per year (t/a) of eGraphene dispersion, produced through a semi-automated pilot facility supported by the EU FET Graphene Flagship program.
The next phase, targeted for 2026–2027, involves finalizing fully automated containerized industrial production at up to 1,600 t/a per unit. These units are designed to operate without manual intervention, reducing operating costs and enabling flexible geographic deployment.
By 2028, Sixonia’s stated ambition is to scale decentralized production to up to 50 million t/a of dispersion capacity globally, sufficient for direct gigafactory supply. This distributed approach delivers a notable benefit beyond scale: it reduces logistics costs, lowers CO₂ emissions associated with shipping, and reduces supply chain risk by enabling localized or on-site production for battery manufacturers.
The proprietary process underpinning all of this is a patented, water-based electrochemical exfoliation method — a low-cost, environmentally favorable technique that produces large, thin, and flexible graphene flakes without the use of harsh solvents.
Technology & Product Portfolio
At its core, eGraphene is a few-layer, functionalized graphene material produced via Sixonia’s proprietary electrochemical exfoliation process. Delivered as surfactant-free, drop-in dispersions — the G-DISP series — in either water or solvent carriers, eGraphene is designed for direct integration into existing battery electrode and coating manufacturing lines without requiring process modifications.
The performance data across tested battery chemistries is notable:
- LFP Cathodes: Adding just 0.1% eGraphene to a 2% carbon black electrode formulation yields 3× higher conductivity — allowing manufacturers to reduce carbon black loading and increase active material content.
- NMC Cathodes: A 1% eGraphene addition alongside 2% carbon black delivers 3× faster charging and improved cycling stability compared to a 3% carbon black baseline.
- Silicon-Rich Anodes: eGraphene provides 50% higher conductivity versus graphite references, 3× better cycling stability, and a 30% improvement in first-cycle efficiency (FCE) — directly addressing silicon’s well-documented degradation challenges.
- LTO Anodes: In high-rate applications, eGraphene enables charging to 80% state of charge in approximately 5 minutes versus 15 minutes with carbon black alone, alongside roughly 8% capacity gain.
Beyond electrodes, Sixonia’s product portfolio extends to separator and membrane coatings for batteries, redox-flow systems, and fuel cells — with specific relevance to PFAS-free alternatives as EU and US regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances continue to tighten. The company also offers interface and primer coatings for active materials and current collectors, as well as custom formulations, inks, pastes, and films for electronics, aerospace, packaging, and filtration applications.
The technical foundation covers more than 10 globally granted patents and more than 100 customization options for eGraphene dispersions, reflecting both the depth of the R&D investment and the breadth of the company’s intended commercial reach.
Strategic Initiatives & Market Context
Sixonia’s commercial strategy is shaped by several converging trends in the battery industry. First, gigafactory proliferation in Europe and North America is creating demand for localized, reliable advanced material supply — a gap that Sixonia’s containerized production model directly targets. By placing production units near customer facilities, the company offers battery manufacturers a path to supply chain localization without the infrastructure burden of building their own materials production capacity.
Second, the regulatory environment around PFAS is pushing battery and fuel cell manufacturers to find viable alternatives to fluorinated binders and coatings. Sixonia’s eGraphene-based separator coatings present a technically credible, commercially practical option for manufacturers looking to get ahead of these compliance requirements.
Third, the growing adoption of silicon anode technology in high-energy-density cells — driven by EV range demands — creates a natural opening for eGraphene, which has demonstrated measurable improvements in exactly the conductivity and cycling stability challenges that make silicon difficult to deploy at scale.
The company’s Graphene Flagship partnerships have provided both R&D validation and early industry credibility, with joint development projects now active across a range of battery chemistries and coating applications with undisclosed global enterprise partners.
Looking Ahead
Sixonia is a company still in its early commercial chapters, but its technical differentiation and production strategy reflect a clear-eyed understanding of where battery material supply chains need to go. The combination of measurable electrode performance gains, a low-cost and scalable production process, and a decentralized deployment model gives eGraphene a credible value proposition for battery manufacturers that goes well beyond laboratory promise.
The path from 50 t/a today to 50 million t/a by 2028 is ambitious and will depend on execution, market adoption, and continued funding. As gigafactories ramp across Europe, and as silicon anodes and PFAS-free coatings move from optional to essential, the window for advanced graphene additives to enter mainstream battery manufacturing is opening.
For investors, suppliers, and cell manufacturers assessing the next wave of performance materials, Sixonia’s eGraphene offers a technically grounded, cost-competitive option that warrants close attention — not because of speculation, but because the data, the production roadmap, and the market timing are increasingly aligned.
