ARBOR BATTERIES, INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: C56-12a

Description

In order to accelerate widespread electric vehicle adoption, improving battery energy densities, charge rates, manufacturing costs, and safety is imperative. Herein, we propose a scalable manufacturing process to improve LIB cell design using 3-D electrode architectures which will minimize inactive material (30% decrease) leading to a 15% increase in cell energy density (330 Wh/kg) and a 10% decrease in cell cost ($82/kWh) while simultaneously improving safety by eliminating Li-plating. The 3-D architectures enable the use of high areal loading graphite (Gr) and graphite/silicon blend (Gr/Si) electrodes (5-8 mAh/cm2) by enabling improved mass transport of Li-ions into the depth of the electrode. This allows for safe and fast charging of thick electrodes at relevant C-rates (2C) without Li plating. The goal for this Phase I SBIR/STTR project is three-fold: (1) Demonstrate a laser ablation process to generate 3-D structures in 7-8 mAh/cm2 Gr and Gr/Si electrodes using commercial IR lasers compatible with high throughput, low-cost manufacturing; (2) Perform a design-of-experiments using single-layer pouch cells with various 3-D geometries to optimize energy density and charge rate, ensuring compatibility with high throughput manufacturing; and (3) Manufacture and test multilayer pouch cells (>2 Ah) using the optimized geometry to demonstrate a 30% reduction in inactive materials and increased safety by showing the elimination of Li-plating. The proposed laser manufacturing processes is drop-in compatible with today’s LIB manufacturing and can be directly integrated into high-speed roll-to-roll electrode manufacturing lines, such as those being built in LIB “gigafactories” currently being built across the United States. As a result, the CapEx investments are significantly reduced, enabling us to scale rapidly at a low cost, while simultaneously leveraging the already extensive investments in and optimization of LIB manufacturing. This contrasts with next-generation battery chemistries such as Li-metal anodes or solid-state batteries which require a redesign of the manufacturing process and will massive investments in time and resources to scale to be cost competitive with LIBs.