Structuring Electrodes for Lithium‐Ion Batteries: A Novel Material Loss‐Free Process Using Liquid Injection

Abstract

One possible approach to improve the fast charging performance of lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) is to create diffusion channels in the electrode coating. Laser ablation is an established method for creating such structures and improving the performance of conventional LIBs. However, this method has not yet been used in industrial battery production due to different reasons. The drawbacks of this method are thermal stress, loss of active material, and discontinuous process flow. Herein, a novel concept is presented that enables the structuring of electrodes by selectively introducing a secondary fluid into the wet coating of the electrode. This displaces the active material prior to drying, resulting in no loss of active material and maintaining mechanical integrity. This innovative process is being tested for graphite anodes on a lab scale. Initial results show that the process can create pores that are comparable to laser‐structured electrodes. There is no visible damage to the electrode and no decrease in mechanical strength due to the structuring is observed. By varying the process parameters, different pore geometries can be generated with continuous process control, which are visually measured in this work. There is also a noticeable increase in performance when fast‐charging these electrode anodes.