Exploring Different Avenues of Microbattery Fabrication through Electrodeposition

Microbattery research sparked from the rapid expansion and miniaturization of micromelectromechanical systems (MEMS) has recently produced a wide variety of different cell designs and electrode geometries. Three-dimensional (3D) electrodes are currently the most promising approach addressing the requirement of high energy and power density on a limited surface area. Expansion in the third dimension offers an increased surface area thereby enabling high energy density without substituting rate performance [1]. Dense packing of all microbattery components offers short diffusion length for charge carriers, e.g. Li-ions and electrons, while contributing to the decrease of the overall cell volume [2].

Of all the techniques studied so far, template-assisted fabrication is the most common route to achieve nanostructured electrodes. By such means, electrodeposition has been used to grow nanopillar [3] and aperiodic ‘sponge’ electrodes.

This work presents results from our studies on electrochemical fabrication of nanostructured electrodes based on nanopillar and aperiodic design as well as integration of a polymer electrolyte coating. Both nanostructured anodes and cathodes will be presented based on the core current collector of carbon, aluminium and copper.

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the STandUP for Energy project, the Swedish Energy Agency (STEM), and the Swedish Research Council (VR).

References

1.         K. Edström, D.B., T. Gustafsson, L. Nyholm, Electrodeposition as a Tool for 3D Microbattery Fabrication. The Electrochemical Society Interface, 2011. 20: p. 41-46.

2.         R.W. Hart, H.S. White., B. Dunn, D.R. Rolison, 3-D Microbatteries. Electrochemistry Communications, 2003. 5: p. 120-123.

3.         M. Valvo, M. Roberts., G. Oltean, B. Sun, D. Rehnlund, D. Brandell, L. Nyholm, T. Gustafsson, K. Edström, Electrochemical elaboration of electrodes and electrolytes for 3D structured batteries. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2013. 1: p. 9281-9293.