Lithium Metal Battery Pouch Cell Assembly and Prototype Demonstration Using Tailored Polypropylene Separator

Abstract

The development of realistic lithium metal batteries (LMBs) is highly desirable to address the steady increase in the energy‐storage demand for high‐power applications. Consequently, the polydopamine‐tailored polypropylene separator enables scale up with ≈8 μm‐thick graphene nanosheets coating on the polypropylene separator. A layered LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 (LNMC) cathode is characterized by X‐ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, which exhibits single phase purity with a hexagonal structure, Rm space group, and a homogenized spherical shape morphology with secondary particles comprising primary particles. Lithium metal battery pouch cells (LMBPCs) are fabricated based on the proposed design strategies, containing a lithium metal anode, LNMC cathode, and tailored polypropylene separator without any internal short circuit, wherein polydopamine and graphene nanosheets layers are positioned toward the LNMC cathode in the pouch cell stacking order. The assembled pouch cell is cycled between 3.0 and 4.2 V and delivers a cell capacity of ≈500 mAh. Then the charged LMBPCs are connected to the prototype electronic truck and demonstrated on various surfaces at 25 °C and < −5 °C. From the prototype truck demonstration results, LMBPCs are useful for practical high‐power applications, including electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and grid energy storage.