Porous Lithium Sheet for Lithium-Ion Battery Anode
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Lithium-ion batteries face challenges in achieving high first coulombic efficiency and uniform lithium supplementation due to the formation of a Solid Electrolyte Interface membrane and difficulties in mixing lithium metal with anode materials, leading to increased production costs and poor cycle performance.
Innovation Solution
A lithium-rich electrode plate with a porous lithium sheet is developed, where a lithium metal sheet is perforated to match the planned lithium-supplemental capacity, improving lithium distribution and reducing electronic resistance, and is coated over an active material film on a collector to enhance energy density and electrochemical performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If lithium metal particles are mixed into the coating layer to improve first coulombic efficiency, then lithium supplementation is achieved, but density of active material is lowered and electronic resistance is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the lithium metal sheet into multiple small holes, segmenting the lithium supplementation into distributed locations rather than continuous metal layers. This segmentation allows lithium to be supplemented at specific points without forming continuous low-density regions, thereby maintaining active material density and electronic conductivity while still achieving the required lithium supplementation for improved first coulombic efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies lithium supplementation locally through perforated holes at specific positions on the lithium metal sheet rather than uniformly across the entire surface. This local quality approach ensures lithium is added only where needed to balance the anode, avoiding unnecessary lithium that would lower overall density and increase electronic resistance in non-critical areas.
2Reliability
If lithium metal sheet is used for lithium supplementation, then first coulombic efficiency is improved, but production cost increases due to drying chamber operation and mixing difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-perforating the lithium metal sheet with holes before assembly into the battery. This preliminary preparation allows the lithium sheet to be directly installed without requiring subsequent mixing operations or drying chamber operations, as the lithium distribution is already optimized through the hole pattern. This eliminates complex manufacturing steps and reduces production costs while maintaining improved first coulombic efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the problematic mixing and drying steps from the production process by using a pre-perforated lithium sheet that can be directly installed. The harmful factors of complex mixing operations and high-cost drying chamber operations are removed, leaving only the essential lithium supplementation function that can be achieved through the perforated sheet structure alone.
3Ease of manufacture
If thin lithium metal sheet is used, then production is simplified, but lithium supplementation quantity is insufficient leading to over lithium-supplement or poor cycle performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a porous structure with holes in the lithium metal sheet to control lithium supplementation quantity. The holes create a three-dimensional porous architecture that increases the effective surface area and lithium contact points while using a thin sheet. This allows precise control of lithium release rate and quantity, preventing both over-supplementation and insufficient supplementation, thereby achieving good cycle performance with simplified thin-sheet construction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional continuous lithium sheet to a three-dimensional porous structure with holes. This dimensional change allows the thin sheet to provide sufficient lithium supplementation quantity by utilizing vertical depth and distributed hole patterns, effectively increasing the lithium delivery capacity without increasing sheet thickness, thus maintaining production simplicity while ensuring adequate lithium quantity.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a lithium-rich electrode plate of a lithium-ion battery and a preparation method thereof. The electrode plate includes a collector; a film containing an active material and forming on the collector, and forming an elementary electrode plate together with the collector; and a porous lithium sheet covering on the film, so that a resulting capacity of the porous lithium sheet matches a planned lithium-supplemental capacity to an anode of a lithium-ion battery. The electrode plate can accurately control lithium supplemental quantity to the anode, improve lithium-supplemental uniformity, improve the first coulombic efficiency, energy density, and electrochemical performance of the battery, and decrease deformation of the cell. Furthermore, the method can be performed simply and the cost thereof is low.