Sodium-Ion Battery Anode Material Patent Landscape
Sodium-Ion Battery Anode Material Patent Landscape in 2026
The sodium-ion battery anode material field is in a confirmed growth phase, with filings expanding 122% over the recent multi-year window and activity dominated by Chinese universities and Brunp-group recycling companies. The landscape is moderately concentrated, with the top five filers holding a fifth of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, and China accounts for the overwhelming majority of jurisdictional filings.
Chinese universities lead a moderately concentrated field
Shaanxi University of Science and Technology holds the top position with 54 patent families, ahead of Central South University at 38 and the Guangdong and Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology entities each at 26. The top tier is anchored almost entirely by Chinese academic institutions and state-linked industrial players.
The top five filers collectively account for 20% of the hundred largest filers’ combined total, indicating moderate concentration: no single player dominates decisively, yet a clear tier gap exists between the top three and the broader field. Commercial applicants are fewer and cluster within the Brunp corporate ecosystem.
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SHAANXI UNIV OF SCI & TECH | 54 | |
| 2 | Central South University | 38 | |
| 3 | Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 26 | |
| 4 | Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 26 | |
| 5 | Hefei University of Technology | 22 | |
| 6 | Guangdong University of Technology | 21 | |
| 7 | Beijing University of Chemical Technology | 21 | |
| 8 | Institute of Optoelectronics at Zhaoqing, South China Normal University | 20 | |
| 9 | South China University of Technology | 19 | |
| 10 | Hunan Brunp EV Recycling Co., Ltd. | 18 |
| # | Applicant | Patent families | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Jilin University | 15 | |
| 12 | Beijing Institute of Technology | 14 | |
| 13 | Taiyuan University of Technology | 14 | |
| 14 | Zhejiang Sci-Tech University | 13 | |
| 15 | Fudan University | 12 | |
| 16 | Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences) | 12 | |
| 17 | Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences | 11 | |
| 18 | Harbin Institute of Technology | 11 | |
| 19 | China Three Gorges University | 11 | |
| 20 | CHINA PETROLEUM & CHEMICAL CORP | 11 |
The leadership profile—predominantly universities—implies that foundational materials science remains the primary battleground. Industrial assignees entering at scale (as the Brunp entities have) signal that the field is beginning the transition from academic exploration toward applied and manufacturing-oriented IP.
Filings from 2025 onward are subject to publication lag and are likely under-counted; the 2026 figure in particular reflects only a partial view of actual activity to date. Longer-window growth, applicant concentration, and technology-route coverage are therefore more reliable signals than the latest-year bar alone.
Sustained volume growth with hard-carbon and nanotech as the core technology axes
Annual filing volumes and the IPC class breakdown together reveal a field still building its technical base, with core battery chemistry dominant but adjacent processing and material-synthesis branches attracting meaningful secondary activity.
Annual filing trend
Filings trended at roughly 80 per year from 2017 to 2019, dipped in 2020, then accelerated sharply through 2021–2024, reaching a recorded peak of 223 patent families in 2024. The 2025 and 2026 totals are suppressed by publication lag and should not be interpreted as a slowdown.
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaTechnology composition
H01M (batteries, cells and fuel cells) is the dominant class by a wide margin, consistent with application-focused anode engineering. C01B (non-metallic elements and inorganic compounds, covering carbon and hard-carbon synthesis routes) is the second-largest branch, and B82Y (nanotechnology applications) is a substantial third, reflecting the prevalence of nanostructured anode architectures. Smaller but present branches include C01G (other metal compounds, covering metal-chalcogenide anodes), D01F (chemical filament and fibre features, relevant to carbon-fibre precursors), and B22F (powder metallurgy).
↗ Hover for values · click a bar to ask EurekaHighly cited patent families surfaced by the query
Citation-heavy patent families returned by the query. Use this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents.
Method for preparing graphene-based sodium ion bat…
Disclosed is a method for preparing a graphene-based sodium ion battery negative electrode material, comprising adding graphene oxide into ethanol absolute, carrying out ultrasonic treatment at a certain temperature to obtain a graphene oxide alcohol dispersion, then preparing a sodium hexanitritocobaltate solution, adding the graphene oxide alcohol… (excerpt from the patent abstract)
| # | Patent | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 基于废弃木屑制备的钠离子电池碳负极材料及其制备方法 | 56 |
| 2 | 钠离子电池负极材料用生物质硬碳的制备方法及其应用 | 56 |
| 3 | 金属硫化物及碳的复合材料的制备方法及其在钠离子电池中的应用 | 47 |
| 4 | 一种硒化钴/碳钠离子电池复合负极材料及其制备方法与应用 | 43 |
| 5 | 一种氮掺杂多孔碳/MoS<sub>2</sub>钠离子电池负极材料及制备方法 | 37 |
| 6 | 一种钠离子电池负极SnS/C复合材料及其制备方法 | 36 |
| 7 | 一种钠离子电池煤基硬炭负极材料及其制备方法和应用 | 35 |
| 8 | 一种钠离子电池负极材料及其制备方法 | 34 |
Ranked by total forward citations. Citation counts favour older and broadly cited patent families, and broad or adjacent patents may appear when they match the search scope. Treat this section as citation context, not as a curated list of the most topic-specific patents. Some patent titles may be shown in their original, non-English language where an accurate translation could not be guaranteed.
What the competitive structure means for R&D investment decisions
Four structural dimensions—maturity stage, concentration, collaboration networks, and geographic footprint—shape the risk and opportunity profile for any new entrant or incumbent expanding their anode materials programme.
Growth stage: volume accelerating, industrialisation beginning
The lifecycle evidence places this field firmly in the Growth stage, with annual filings still rising and the 122% multi-year expansion rate confirming broad momentum. The recorded peak sits at 2024, and publication lag means real activity is likely higher in 2025–2026. The transition of Brunp-group entities into the top tier signals early industrialisation alongside continued academic output.
Growth stageModerate concentration with a wide mid-tier
The top five filers hold 20% of the hundred largest filers’ combined output, leaving 80% distributed across a long tail of universities and smaller companies. This moderate concentration means the field is contestable: a focused entrant with differentiated chemistry (e.g. alloy-type or organic anodes) can carve out a defensible position without directly challenging the Shaanxi or Brunp-group portfolios. The tier gap between rank 1 (54 families) and rank 10 (18 families) is real but not prohibitive.
Moderate HHIBrunp-group entities dominate co-filing; university–industry links emerging
The most active co-filing pair is Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology and Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology with 26 joint families, reflecting intra-group coordination rather than open ecosystem collaboration. Hunan Brunp EV Recycling is a secondary co-filer with each Brunp entity (18 families apiece). Outside the Brunp cluster, Central South University co-files with Changsha Linrun New Materials (3 families), and Guangdong University of Technology has single-family partnerships with Guangdong University of Technology’s provincial lab network and South China University of Technology. Hefei University of Technology and University of Science and Technology of China have one joint filing. Cross-sector university–industry collaboration beyond the Brunp group remains sparse.
Intra-group dominantChina-centric filing; international protection minimal
China accounts for 1,244 jurisdictional filings, dwarfing all other offices. WIPO PCT filings stand at 14, with India at 8 and the United States and United Kingdom each at 6. This means most IP is currently protected only domestically in China, leaving manufacturing and commercialisation markets in Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia with limited third-party prior art barriers—an opportunity for non-Chinese players to file internationally on novel anode chemistries.
China-dominantGo beyond the landscape: Eureka’s TRIZ Solution agent breaks down an R&D problem and returns patented concept solutions, each with a technical approach and cited patent & literature evidence.
| Applicant | Collaborator | Co-filings |
|---|---|---|
| Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 26 |
| Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Hunan Brunp EV Recycling Co., Ltd. | 18 |
| Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Hunan Brunp EV Recycling Co., Ltd. | 18 |
| Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Hunan Brunp EV Recycling Co., Ltd. | 7 |
| Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Hunan Brunp EV Recycling Co., Ltd. | 7 |
| Central South University | Changsha Linrun New Materials Co., Ltd. | 3 |
| Guangdong University of Technology | Guangdong Nanhua Energy Conservation and Low-Carbon Development Research Institute | 1 |
| Guangdong University of Technology | South China University of Technology | 1 |
| Guangdong University of Technology | Guangdong Provincial Laboratory of Chemistry and Fine Chemicals (Jieyang Branch) | 1 |
| Hefei University of Technology | University of Science and Technology of China | 1 |
Co-filing pairs, ranked by the number of jointly-filed patent families.
Shaanxi University leads on volume; Brunp entities are the fastest-rising industrial filers
The top of the ranking splits between a long-established academic leader and a corporate cluster that has entered the top tier recently at scale, pointing to a field where foundational and applied IP strategies are diverging.
Shaanxi University of Science and Technology
The top-ranked applicant with 54 patent families, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology focuses primarily on H01M 4 (electrode materials), H01M 10 (secondary battery systems), and B82Y 30 (nanotechnology applications), indicating a broad-based anode materials programme spanning nanostructured carbons and composite electrodes. Momentum has eased recently (trend: –75% in the most recent period), suggesting the peak of its output cycle may have passed, though its accumulated portfolio remains the deepest in the corpus.
families: 54Brunp Recycling Technology (Hunan & Guangdong)
Both Brunp entities—Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology and Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology—each hold 26 patent families and both register as new entrants in the momentum data, indicating their substantial portfolios were built entirely within the recent filing window. Their shared technical emphasis on H01M 4, C01B 32 (carbon compound synthesis), and H01M 10 points to a strategy integrating recycled-material feedstocks into anode synthesis—a commercially differentiated approach relative to the primarily synthesis-focused academic leaders.
families: 26 each| Applicant | Recent (3 yrs) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Shaanxi University of Science and Technology | 7 | ▼ -75% |
| Central South University | 9 | ▲ new entrant |
| Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 23 | ▲ new entrant |
| Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | 23 | ▲ new entrant |
| Guangdong University of Technology | 8 | ▲ new entrant |
| Hefei University of Technology | 10 | ▲ new entrant |
| South China University of Technology | 8 | ▲ new entrant |
| Beijing University of Chemical Technology | 8 | ▲ new entrant |
Under-served branches adjacent to the dominant anode chemistry core
Four IPC branches sit at the margins of the current corpus with low filing counts relative to the dominant H01M class. Two stand out for their combination of sparsity, technical relevance to anode engineering, and plausible entry paths.
D01F · Chemical filament and fibre features (carbon-fibre precursor anodes)
With only 20 filings against the corpus total of 1,209 patent families, D01F is sparsely covered despite its direct relevance: electrospun and carbon-fibre-derived hard carbons are an active research direction for sodium-ion anodes because fibre morphology controls ion-diffusion pathways and rate capability. The low filing count suggests most work in this sub-area remains at the academic publication stage. An entrant with expertise in precursor polymer chemistry or electrospinning process engineering could establish a defensible IP position with a targeted filing programme, particularly given the near-absence of international protection in this branch.
Search this in Eureka →B22F · Powder metallurgy (alloy-type and composite anode fabrication)
B22F covers powder-processing routes—including ball milling, sintering, and spray drying—that are central to fabricating alloy-type anodes (tin, antimony, phosphorus composites) and metal-chalcogenide composites. Only 15 filings appear in this branch, a low count given that alloy anodes are a technically attractive route to higher capacity than hard carbon. The sparse coverage may reflect that most alloy-anode work is claimed under H01M rather than process-level B22F codes, but it also indicates that powder-metallurgy process claims are under-filed. Organisations with manufacturing-oriented IP strategies in powder processing could find relatively open ground here.
Search this in Eureka →How leading filers differ by technology route
Strength of each leader across the main technology routes.
| Player | H01M 4 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | H01M 10 · Batteries, cells & fuel cells | C01B 32 · Non-metallic elements & inorganic compounds | B82Y 30 · Nanotechnology applications | B82Y 40 · Nanotechnology applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaanxi University of Science and Technology | Strong · 77 | Strong · 66 | Emerging · 11 | Moderate · 23 | Emerging · 10 |
| Central South University | Strong · 41 | Strong · 36 | Moderate · 13 | Emerging · 4 | Absent |
| Beijing University of Chemical Technology | Strong · 21 | Strong · 19 | Strong · 16 | Emerging · 4 | Emerging · 4 |
| Hefei University of Technology | Strong · 22 | Strong · 16 | Moderate · 11 | Moderate · 8 | Moderate · 5 |
| Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Strong · 24 | Strong · 15 | Strong · 17 | Absent | Absent |
| Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology Co., Ltd. | Strong · 24 | Strong · 15 | Strong · 17 | Absent | Absent |
| Guangdong University of Technology | Strong · 23 | Strong · 22 | Absent | Moderate · 5 | Moderate · 5 |
Frequently asked questions
The evidence covers 1,209 patent families in scope. Filing activity has grown 122% over the recent multi-year window, with the highest recorded annual volume of 223 families in 2024.
Shaanxi University of Science and Technology leads with 54 patent families, followed by Central South University at 38. The Guangdong and Hunan Brunp Recycling Technology entities each hold 26 families and represent the most active industrial filers.
The top 10 ranked applicants are predominantly Chinese universities—including Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Central South University, Hefei University of Technology, Guangdong University of Technology, and Beijing University of Chemical Technology. Industrial applicants, led by the Brunp-group entities, are entering at scale but do not yet outnumber academic filers in the ranking.
China accounts for 1,244 jurisdictional filings, far exceeding all other offices. WIPO PCT filings stand at 14, with India, the United States, and the United Kingdom each receiving very small numbers. International protection outside China is minimal across the corpus.
The two most-cited records (56 citations each) cover biomass-derived hard carbon anodes—one from waste wood chips and one from general biomass precursors. Other highly cited work (47 and 43 citations) covers metal-sulphide/carbon composites and cobalt selenide/carbon composite anodes, respectively. Nitrogen-doped porous carbon/MoS2 and SnS/C composites also appear among the top-cited records, indicating that carbon-based and metal-chalcogenide composite anodes attract the most follow-on attention.
The sparsest adjacent branches relative to the dominant H01M core are D01F (chemical filament and fibre features, covering electrospun carbon-fibre anodes, 20 filings) and B22F (powder metallurgy covering alloy and composite anode fabrication processes, 15 filings). C08G (condensation polymers, relevant to binder and carbon-precursor chemistry, 14 filings) is also sparse. These are observations of relative under-filing, not guaranteed opportunities; technical and commercial validation is required before committing R&D resources.
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