Abstract
Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) has received increasing attention as an alternative manufacturing approach to slurry casting for the production of battery and supercapacitor electrodes. This process is of relevance for industrial scalability as evidently seen in the current electrophoretic paints industry. Nevertheless, the reported work so far have only concentrated on thin films of electrophoretically deposited electrodes for energy storage. Here, the electrochemical performance of thick films (up to tens of μm) as lithium‐ion battery electrodes produced by EPD is reported. A commercially sourced LiN1/3M1/3C1/3O2 (5 to 25 μm particle size) was used in this exemplary investigation. This work shows the production of binder‐free high density active material (>90 %) electrodes. Coin cells were assembled and the battery performance was measured. Tests included: cyclic voltammetry, C‐rate vs capacity, battery cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Other investigations also studied: colloidal electrolyte formulation, electrode manufacture, microstructure characterisation and elemental mapping analysis. In short, EPD electrode manufacture can be applied as a platform technology for any battery and supercapacitor material, and the reported manufacturing processes and methodologies represent direct relevance to produce energy storage electrodes useful to practical applications.
Highlights
In the academic science base, the recent years are seeing increasing interests to deploy electrophoretic deposition (EPD)as an alternative manufacturing approach to slurry casting for the production of battery and supercapacitor electrodes.[2,3]Examples of battery materials studied, Lithium-ion include LFP,[4] LTO,[5] LMP,[6] LCO,[7] LMO[8] and Si.[9]
It is noted that these published studies reported thin films of coating layers, typically several mm in film thickness
For successful EPD electrode manufacture, it is critical that the solid materials to be deposited has sufficient surface charge so that they can migrate to a deposition surface under the influence of an electric field.[17,18]
Summary
In the academic science base, the recent years are seeing increasing interests to deploy electrophoretic deposition (EPD). A recent survey on electrode production, highlighting the challenges to scale-up lab research to industrial electrode production, is available.[1] While slurry casting is scalable and robust, new manufacturing advances are needed to produce generation electrodes when extra performance or functionality is required. While approaches such as sintering, extrusion, and freezing have unlocked extreme values of capacity and rate capability, they generally involved arduous complex processing and poorly suited to produce electrodes at scale suitable for industrial applications. The evidence provided here is useful to exemplify how EPD electrode manufacture approach can extend the intrinsic electrochemical properties of active materials to be realized more fully, including improved electrode design such as higher density active material electrode that are binder-less and thick film to give useful capacity for practical applications
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