Additive manufacturing of LiCoO electrodes vat photopolymerization for lithium ion batteries
Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the fabrication of lithium-ion batteries for a diversity of applications including in portable, biomedical, aerospace, and the transportation fields. Standard commercial batteries consist of stacked layers of various components (current colle...
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Published in: | Energy advances Vol. 3; no. 5; pp. 19 - 118 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Journal Article |
Published: |
16-05-2024
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Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Additive manufacturing has the potential to revolutionize the fabrication of lithium-ion batteries for a diversity of applications including in portable, biomedical, aerospace, and the transportation fields. Standard commercial batteries consist of stacked layers of various components (current collectors, cathode, anode, separator and electrolyte) in a two-dimensional manner. By leveraging the latest advances in additive manufacturing and computer-aided design, an improved geometric and electrochemical configuration of these batteries can maximize energy efficiency while allowing design optimization to reduce dead space for a given application. In this work, a composite UV photosensitive resin was prepared and used as feedstock in a vat photopolymerization system. The resin was loaded with LiCoO
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acting as electrochemically active material for the cathode of a lithium-ion battery, and was further improved with the addition of conductivity-enhancing carbonaceous additives. Challenges to additive manufacturing arise from the opacity and high viscosity of the composite nature of these electrochemically-active resins, which cause light refraction during selective UV curing. Subsequently, items were printed and subjected to a thermal post-processing step to obtain an adequate compromise between electrochemical performance and mechanical integrity. Both sintered and green state 3D printed cathodes were assembled into half-cell lithium-ion batteries using lithium metal as a reference and counter electrode. Electrochemical cycling of these batteries yielded satisfactory results approaching commercial LiCoO
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cathodes' performance, with the potential advantages of additive manufacturing - high surface area anode-cathode configurations for power performance as well as shape conformability.
3D printed LiCoO
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cathodes for lithium-ion batteries were obtained
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vat photopolimerization additive manufacturing. The best electrochemical performance was obtained after performing thermal post-processing. |
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ISSN: | 2753-1457 |
DOI: | 10.1039/d4ya00011k |