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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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy advances Vol. 3; no. 5; pp. 19 - 118
Main Authors: Martinez, Ana C, Aranzola, Ana P, Schiaffino, Eva, MacDonald, Eric, Maurel, Alexis
Format: Journal Article
Published: 16-05-2024
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 2 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 2 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 2 cathodes for lithium-ion batteries were obtained via vat photopolimerization additive manufacturing. The best electrochemical performance was obtained after performing thermal post-processing.
ISSN:2753-1457
DOI:10.1039/d4ya00011k