Project title: The Development of Coating Technology for LIB Electrodes. Project start date: Project end date:

Transcription

1 Project title: The Development of Coating Technology for LIB Electrodes Project start date: Project end date: Project leader: Josh THOMAS Project engineer: Kristofer FREDIN (in close collaboration with ÅABC-Uppsala University) Swedish Energy Agency support: :- Company address: LiFeSiZE AB Lefflersgatan 3A UPPSALA Mobile: url:

2 f y i... LiFeSiZE AB Ångström lab. (a spin-off from ÅABC/UU)

3 Project title: The Development of Coating Technology for LIB Electrodes Project start date: Project end date: Project leader: Josh THOMAS Project engineer: Kristofer FREDIN (in close collaboration with ÅABC-Uppsala University) Swedish Energy Agency support: :- Company address: LiFeSiZE AB Lefflersgatan 3A UPPSALA Mobile: url:

4 Some key factors relevant to the battery production up-scale needed for a BEV-future Battery:vehicle cost ratio... currently too high! BEV battery life-expectancy... must be long(er)! The R&D time needed for development of new concepts:... ca. 10 years The (vast!) volumes needed e.g.

5 Coated electrode areas needed in a BEV future : Let us assume: - 50 million new (BEV) vehicles/year mah/cm 2 loading of active material electrodes - a 30 kwh pack >>> 10 kah pack >>> 800 m 2 coating/bev pack A crude estimate for a future BEV market... Pessimistic scenario: 2% BEVs (by ) >>>> 800 sq km electrode coating/year Optimistic scenario: All-BEVs (by 2050!!!) >>>> sq km electrode coating /year (a coated area of 200 x 200 km or to the Sun and back as a 15 cm wide strip!)

6 Back to basic research... WHEN is it appropriate to embark upon a material scale-up - when you know you can scale up your synthesis from lab-scale. - when the cost of the raw materials involved is not prohibitively high. - when your new material fulfils a genuine market need.

7 LiFeSiZE s key focus in this project... >>> Electrode SLURRY optimization >>> Electrode coating SPEED >>> RELIABILITY/REPRODUCIBILITY of electrode performance

8 Overall view of the coater-line at LiFeSiZE

9 Operational units of the coater-line (schematic) Coating Out-feeding Drying Unwinding 3 x 1.5m drying units Rewinding

10 Operational units of the coater-line Unwinding Coating Drying Rewinding Out-feeding

11 Some auxilliary equipment... High-power mixer (slurry preparation) Rheometer (slurry optimization) Cell testing equipment

12 Comparison: Table-top coater vs. Rotary coater-line coater Table-top coater Rotary coater-line (ÅABC/UU) (LZ) Precision: < 5 m 0.1 m Slurry capacity: 80 ml 5.0 l Dryer length: 60 cm 4.5 m (6.0 m later this year) Coating width: 100 mm (max.) 350 mm (max.) Coating speed(*): 1 26 (*) based on same drying time

13 DC (mahg -1 ) DC/CC Proof-of-concept for Lithium Iron Silicate (LFS) as an LIB cathode material LFS vs Li no. o cells #4, RT, V, LP40, C/10 (1h CV C/D) 131,0 130,5 130,0 129,5 129,0 128,5 Cell no. #1 #2 #3 #4 0,990 0,985 0,980 0,975 0,970 LFS vs Li no. o cells #4, RT, V, LP40, C/10 (1h CV C/D) Four(4) LFS vs. Li-foil half-cells: cycled at RT; V-window: V; LP40-electrolyte; C/10-rate Discharge Capacity (DC) Cycling efficiency (DC/CC) Cell no. #1 #2 #3 #4 128,0 0, Cycle Cycle (performance of the 4 test-cells identical within precision of cell fabrication)

14 Proof-of-concept for Lithium Iron Silicate (LFS) as an LIB cathode material Four(4) LFS vs. Li-foil half-cells: cycled at RT; V-window: V; LP40-electrolyte; C/10-rate Compression ratio (coating thickness: ~130 µm) smoother electrode higher vol. cap. (further improved by hot-calendering)

15 SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS: (Too) many variables sensitively influence the rheology of the slurry. Crude slurry optimization can be achieved relatively quickly... but fine-tuning to give reliable reproducibility takes MUCH longer. It is difficult to make a valid comparison between lab-scale and LiFeSiZE coatings ( comparing apples and pears!) A higher calendering ratio gives less variation in thickness (will be further improved by hot-calendering)

16 LiFeSiZE s role - from a materials research perspective: Basic Univ./Inst. (Batt. Mat. Res.) UU e.g., our Li 2 FeSiO 4 development work Proof-of-concept LZ Industrial R&D HB A potential battery raw material producer (after material scale-up)

17 LiFeSiZE s role from an industrial perspective: Basic Univ./Inst. (Batt. Mat. Res.) UU Customized cell-prototyping Industrial R&D HB A potential battery raw material producer LZ Battery end-users (more typical partners)

18 LiFeSiZE s role from an industrial perspective: Basic Univ./Inst. (Batt. Mat. Res.) UU Customized cell-prototyping Industrial R&D HB A potential battery raw material producer LZ benchmarking new materials tailored cell-prototype design for local battery production () Battery end-users (generally not interested in materials development)

19 What electrode coatings can we assist you with For Li-/Na-ion batteries ( LIBs and NIBs ) For supercaps Li-S () Li-air () What you need (to know) before doing a test coating: >10g (preferably >50g) of active material for one(1) coating test but ca. 1 kg for preliminary slurry optimization. Some idea of slurry components/proportions Some milling/slurry-mixing experiences Preferred substrate (we can provide Al-/Cu-/ plastic -foils) Contacts: jot@lifesize.se or krf@lifesize.se

20 Questions...