Influence of Mixing Technology and the Potential to Modify the Morphological Properties of Materials used in the Manufacture of Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium‐ion batteries are state‐of‐the‐art for the energy supply of small electronic devices as mobile computer and cellphones. However, for larger cell sizes with higher capacities, the energy density is still not sufficient for a commercial use such as in electromobility applications and stationary power storage solutions. Both materials aspects and the processing of the whole battery device is an important factor for the final performance. It is known that the material structure and the interaction between the components determine the electrical behavior of the battery. The formation of the structure and network takes place in mixing devices in which the process conditions must be investigated and studied through experimentation. This research is focused on the mixing behavior of an active material with carbon black and the structural modification during the slurry manufacturing process.

Delamination behavior of lithium-ion battery anodes: Influence of drying temperature during electrode processing

“…The first step is mixing and dispersing. The raw materials are dispersed homogeneously in a solvent, forming aggregates of additives and active material depending on the mixing procedure [8,9]. The slurry is coated onto a metallic current collector.…”

Process‐Structure‐Formulation Interactions for Enhanced Sodium Ion Battery Development: A Review

“…Conductive carbon black, generally pyrolyzed from acetylene feedstock, [113,114] is the most widely used additive in both cathodes and anodes for both types of batteries. Due to the high surface area (∼64 m 2 /g) of carbon black particles, [115] this component of slurries tends to exert proportionally greater impact on viscosity and surface area through strong inter‐particle associations [116] . This high surface area also promotes carbon black self‐agglomeration, which is associated with decreased cell performance in lithium‐ion cells [117] …”

“…Controlled dispersion of carbon black agglomerates was shown to be possible through adjustment of parameters such as mixing time and mixing speed in both cathode [115] and anode slurries, [118] for both non‐aqueous (PVDF) and aqueous carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) systems [119] . Optimized mixing is also necessary to finely control the network of associations between carbon black aggregates, binder globules and active material particles [120] .…”

Microscale Discrete Element Method Simulation of the Carbon Black Aggregate Fracture Behavior in a Simple Shear Flow

“…[ 11 ] Hence, a large part of recent research is focused on the investigation of the relationships between the manufacturing process and the final electrode structure. [ 12,13 ] For these reasons, the presented work will mainly focus on the positive. It is worthwhile to mention that the latter is often labeled as cathode in the cited literature as it references the discharge process.…”