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In efforts to increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, researchers have attempted to both increase the thickness of battery electrodes and increase the relative fractions of active material. One system that has both of these attributes are sintered thick electrodes comprised of only active material. Such electrodes have high areal capacities, however, detailed understanding is needed of their transport properties, both electronic and ionic, to better quantify their limitations to cycling at higher current densities. In this report, efforts to improve models of the electrochemical cycling of sintered electrodes are described, in particular incorporation of matrix electronic conductivity which is dependent on the extent of lithiation of the active material and accounting for initial gradients in lithiation of active material in the electrode that develop as a consequence of transport limitations during charging cycles. Adding in these additional considerations to a model of sintered electrode discharge resulted in improved matching of experimental cell measurements.
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Multicomponent two-layered cathode for thick sintered lithium-ion batteries
Higher energy density batteries continue to be pursued by researchers. One general route to increase energy density is to increase electrode thickness, which reduces the relative fraction of the cell allocated to inactive components. One route to fabricate thick electrodes is to use mildly thermally treated, or sintered, electrodes comprising only electroactive materials. In this report, the concept of sintered electrodes comprising two different electroactive components will be reported. Conventional composite electrodes with multiple electroactive materials have previously been investigated with the goal of combining desirable attributes of the different components. Sintered electrodes have additional complexity relative to composite electrodes in that interfaces can be formed during processing, and consideration of the location of the different component materials must be taken into account due to the need for electronic conduction through the electrode matrix to proceed through the electroactive materials themselves. Both additional considerations and outcomes will be discussed in this report where multicomponent sintered electrodes of LiCoO 2 and LiMn 2 O 4 were fabricated and characterized.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1825216
- PAR ID:
- 10382799
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Materials Advances
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2633-5409
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 4200 to 4212
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Lithium-ion batteries have received significant research interest due to their advantages in energy and power density, which are important to enabling many devices. One route to further increase energy density is to fabricate thicker electrodes in the battery cell; however, careful consideration must be taken when designing electrodes as to how increasing the thickness impacts the multiscale and multiphase molecular transport processes, which can limit the overall battery operating power. Design of these electrodes necessitates probing the molecular processes when the battery cell undergoes electrochemical charge/discharge. One tool for in situ insights into the cell is neutron imaging, because neutron imaging can provide information of where electrochemical processes occur within the electrodes. In this manuscript, neutron imaging is applied to track the lithiation/delithiation processes within electrodes at different current densities for a full cell with a thick sintered Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 anode and LiCoO 2 cathode. The neutron imaging reveals that the molecular distribution of Li + during discharge within the electrode is sensitive to the current density, or equivalently discharge rate. An electrochemical model provides additional insights into the limiting processes occurring within the electrodes. In particular, the impact of tortuosity and molecular transport in the liquid phase within the interstitial regions in the electrodes are considered, and the influence of tortuosity was shown to be highly sensitive to the current density. Qualitatively, the experimental results suggest that the electrodes behave consistent with the packed hard sphere approximation of Bruggeman tortuosity scaling, which indicates that the electrodes are largely mechanically intact but also that a design that incorporates tunable tortuosity could improve the performance of these types of electrodes.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D1MA01074C
