PHYSICAL SCIENCES INC. — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 07a

Description

Higher energy density batteries are required in order to increase vehicle range and facilitate adoption. A significant amount of research has been devoted to developing new materials with increased capacity and performance. In order to minimize the cell weight, new cell design techniques are also required that minimize the mass fraction of the inactive components. The Phase II effort will build on the Phase I results and demonstrate the ability to construct cells offering a ~25% increase in cell energy density as compared to cells built with current components and techniques. Two improvements will be made to realize these gains. First, a novel anode current collector will reduce the inactive weight in the cell. Second, commercially available cathode materials offering higher capacity will be integrated together with an electrode formulation technique that maximizes the active material percentage. During the Phase I effort, a novel anode current collector and cathode coating/electrode formulation techniques were successfully demonstrated that enable the construction of lithium ion cells with increased energy density. Testing demonstrated the ability to increase the energy density while maintaining the cycle life required for use in electric vehicles. The objective of the Phase II effort is to scale-up the technologies demonstrated during Phase I so as to produce cells with higher energy density than achievable using conventional materials and techniques. Testing will demonstrate that these cells deliver the required cycling and rate performance required for use in electric vehicle applications. The developed techniques will allow the design of cells offering higher energy densities at lower cost for all commercial applications. For electric vehicles, this will reduce the normalized cost of powertrain systems, enabling widespread adoption by the consumer vehicle market.