Electrophoretic Deposition for Lithium‐Ion Battery Electrode Manufacture

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.

Practical aspects of electrophoretic deposition to produce commercially viable supercapacitor energy storage electrodes

“…Growth rate of coating layer was about 6 to 9 μm min −1 , which is consistent to our previous EPD research on lithium-ion battery electrode manufacture. 1 For longer deposition, slow-down in growth rate is ideal for depositing uniform thickness all over an irregular 3D complex topography ( e.g. microporous foam current collectors, fibrous electrodes, 3D printed structures).…”

“…The charged particles migrate to a deposition substrate, then are deposited onto it and form a layer by deposits build-up. Recent years are seeing many published evidence in EPD for energy storage applications; notably lithium-ion battery electrode, 1 solid-state electrolyte, 2 membrane electrode assembly, 3 supercapacitor 4 and flow battery, 5 but their advancement for industrialisation are far from actual adoption. An obvious reason is because the published research have only focused on depositing very thin layer (<1 μm), which gives the extreme performance values that can only be attributed to a complete utilization of low density active materials (1 mg cm −2 ) for fast accessibility of electrons and ions.…”

“…Fig.2Representation on electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of activated carbon (8 to 10 mm) and carbon black (100 to 200 nm) onto Al foil (15 mm) to form a controllable coating film thickness (1 mm to 1 mm). Reproduced with permission from Wiley 1. …”

All‐Electrochemical Nanofabrication of Stacked Ternary Metal Sulfide/Graphene Electrodes for High‐Performance Alkaline Batteries

“…[ 26 ] By mixing small amounts of PDADMAC with the rGO suspension, the quaternary cations adsorbed on the rGO surface. [ 57 ] Then, the authors immersed the GF in the above‐mentioned suspension, and the deposition proceeded through cathodic electrophoresis. The approach was different from EPD in the conventional aqueous suspension, the latter being prone to cause oxidative damage to the GF via the electrolysis of water (see Scheme 1).…”

Valorisation of CO2 into Value-Added Products via Microbial Electrosynthesis (MES) and Electro-Fermentation Technology

“…So EPD demands bulky and industrial-scale manufacturing of porous electrodes. The MES has been recorded to achieve a high acetic acid production rate of up to 685 g m −2 day −1 from CO 2 , using enriched microbial culture and a newly synthesised material for the electrode [16,61,174,175].…”