Battery Materials

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Battery Materials

Lithium-Ion Basic Structure and Fabrication Process

Introduction

The application of Lithium-Ion Batteries covers a wide range of sectors, including mobile devices, power sources for computers to automobiles (Conrad, 123). There is an accelerated demand for high output batteries which are more stable (Conrad, 154). High-performance evaluation equipment is thus used to analyze the high-performance of the LIBs (Conrad, 231). The components of a LIB come in various diverse forms such as sheets, liquid and powder.

Battery Characteristics

High-Power Battery

Applications

• Used for storage purposes.
• They are used as charging points for PHEVs and EVs.
• They are used in ultracapacitor bus.
• They are used in plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
• They are used in hybrid electric vehicle (HEV).

High-energy Battery

Characteristics

• Used in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).
• They are used in electric bicycle, truck or bus.
• They are used in electric vehicles (EV).

Crystal Structure

The diagrams below reveal the various crystal structures of Lithium-ion batteries.

                                                              Lithium-Ion Packs            

The Lithium-ion packs undergo two significant processes of which are Pouch Cell Manufacturing and the Process flow for cylindrical Cell Manufacturing (Gulbinska, 143). The first process involves mixing, coating, pressing, module cutting, stacking, welding, top sealing and finally, injection (Gulbinska, 154). The second process involves mixture, coating, cold lam, slitting, welding, winding, high sealing and finally, injection.

Evaluation of Particle Dispersion Behavior of Lithium-ion

The diagram shown below shows how Lithium-ion particles behave during dispersion. An electron tunnelling microscope was used for this purpose.

Lithium Battery Manufacturing

As shown in the diagram below, the anode and cathode materials undergo the following processes:

• Mixing
• Coating
• Compressing
• Drying
• Slitting

Lithium Tracking variabilities

The diagram below shows the variability of tracking Lithium in various compounds as seen under an electron tunnelling microscope.

Manufacturing steps for Lithium-Ion Batteries

The slurry is first prepared. The active material, conductive agent and the binder are mixed together in specific mass ratios (Gulbinska, 265). By use of tape procedure, the electrode slurry is coated and dried on the current collectors (Gulbinska, 278). The next process is calendaring, where the porous electrodes are compressed through driving them through two massive cylinders.

The electrodes are then punched into strips of the desired shape. The wires are the wounded or stacked together with separators for cell assembly (Gulbinska, 291). The electrolyte is then injected and is allowed to fully permeate the pores (Gulbinska, 301). This is the final stage of filling and formation of the electrolyte.

Lithium Fabrication

The substrate alternatives in this process include the polymer tape, anode and the cathode composite. The process begins with the solid electrolyte separator fabrication. The components are mixed in three stages (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 63). The first stage is the wet chemical processing, where the elements are dispersed. They include the solvent, pore formers, binder and solid electrolyte particles.

The layer formation then takes place through screen printing and tape casting. Finally, the layers are compacted through calendaring (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 74). The second stage involves high-viscosity processing, where the components are mixed through compounding (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 82). They include the binder and solid electrolyte particles (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 89). In the layer formation, the copper is extruded, and lamination is done finally compacting the layers through pressing.

The third stage involves powder-based processing, where the sole input is solid electrolyte particles (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 94). These components are mixed through dry milling while the layers are formed through vapour and aerosol deposition (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 97). The sheets are then compacted through copper sintering.

Hierarchal Structure of Lithium Batteries

On the anode side, there is Lithium metal, the carbon in the form of graphite (Hard carbon, MCBC and Graphene can also be used) and Li$Ti5O12 (Wang and Boniface 112). The solvent is molecular Li. On the cathode, there are Lithium metal oxides which include: LiMn2O4, Li2MnO3 and LiCoO2 (Wang and Boniface 114). There is also Lithium metal Polyanionic;(LiFeSO4F). The polymer binder is an active carbon black material (Wang and Boniface, 118). Electrons are moving from the anode to the cathode, creating a load current.

Development of the Lithium-Ion Technology

The Lithium-Ion technology is a growing field with prospects of 1000Wh/I and 350 Wh/kg by 2030. This graph shows the aspired growth rate up to the year 2030.           

Critical Review

The used LIB is discharged, and then the contaminants, which include the casing mixed with waste, are dismantled (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 134). The case is perforated by injection of CO2, hence, extruding the electrolyte. It is then shredded and sieved for magnetic separation of Al, Fe, Cu and Plastics (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 142). Perform is then added for dense media separation of cathode and anode.

The cathode is basically purified through leaching. The Lithium is then adjusted for dissolution and filtration so as to obtain the cathode material (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 123). The anode is purified through acid leaching (Harris, Qi and Jiang, 162). It is then added to the furnace for combustion producing the polymer binder, and the anode material is finally obtained.

LIB Value Chain

The market for LIB electrolyte is steadily increasing. The power tools have a slight declination as compared to industrial materials (Wang and Boniface 178). The automotive has a genuinely high increase over the years. The E- bicycles have a slightly notable increment, although they are relatively stable for consecutive years (Wang and Boniface 192). The portable electronics have the highest LIB electrolyte market (Wang and Boniface 234). They are followed by auto and E-Bus, which seem to be gaining steady momentum for the coming years.

Challenges involved in the use of LIB

The challenges involved in the application of LIB are:

• Most elements of the compounds have a relatively low electronic conductivity.
• The elements of the compounds with relatively good electronic conductivity are insoluble.
• The elements of the compounds have a relatively low voltage hysteresis.
• The elements of the compounds have a relatively low potential.
• The elements of the compounds are likely to be unstable due to their ease of volume expansion.

These properties are demonstrated in the table below:

Safety Issues

These are precautions represented by the use of a graph on the basis of the chemical and physical properties of Lithium-Ion batteries.

Solid-State and Polymer Batteries

The graph below shows the prospective market share for passenger cars in billion dollars. It also incorporates the EV unit sales in thousand’s units.

Works Cited

Conrad, Paul. Battery Materials. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Data Corp,2000. Print.

Gulbinska, K. Lithium-ion Battery Materials and Engineering. London: SPRINGER LONDON

LTD, 2016. Print.

Harris, S J, Y Qi, Peng Lu, and M Jiang. Microstructure, Mechanisms, and Modelling of Battery

 Materials., 2011. Print.

Wang, Hailiang, and Boniface P. T. Fokwa. Inorganic Battery Materials., 2020. Print.