Li ion battery has been a key research and development topic in energy storage industry in past decade because of considerable consumer demand and market growth including consumer electronics and transportation. A significant effort is focused on development of new chemistry of battery materials such as nickel-rich layered cathode and high capacity silicon anode.

Unlike recently reported solvent-free electrode manufacturing variants such as electrostatic spray coating¹, dry powder painting² and isothermal hot-pressing³, Maxwell Technologies unique heritage solvent-free dry electrode process⁴ used to commercialized Ultracapacitor electrodes can be adapted to existing lithium ion battery chemistries and advanced materials. Maxwell dry electrode manufacturing demonstrative benefits over conventional slurry wet coating process includes, (i)environmentally benign due to elimination of toxic solvent, (ii) lower cost by reducing capital and operating expenditures, resulting from elimination of solvent recovery and recycling system, (iii) improved energy and power density afforded by unique dense high loading electrode microstructures.

Maxwell Technologies has applied its proprietary dry electrode process to produced lithium ion battery cathode and anode electrode with unparalleled energy density and enhance cycle life over conventional wet coated electrodes. We have demonstrated dry robust process capability, incorporating current and advanced chemistries such as graphite, silicon, metal alloy, and nickel-rich layered transition metal oxides. In addition, we have demonstrated roll-to-roll dry process scalability using common and advanced battery material chemistries.

This paper presents physical properties of self-supporting dry electrode film and electrochemical performance of dry battery electrode in half cell and full cell. We will share electrochemical performance of dry battery electrode produced at the lab-level and pilot-level in single layer pouch cell as well as multilayer stacked pouch cell platform with capacity raging from about 200mAh to about 15Ah.

References:

1. Al-Shroofy, M.; Zhang, Q.; Xu, J.; Chen, T. Kaur, A.P.; Cheng, Y., J. Power Sources, 2017, 352, 187-193
2. Ludwig, B.; Zheng, Z.; Shou, W.; Wang, Y.; Pan, H., Scientific Reports, 2016, 1-10
3. Park, D., Ca~nas, N.A.; Wagner, N.; Friedrich, K.A., J. Power Sources, 2016, 306, 758-763
4. Duong, H.; Suszko, A.; Feigenbaum, H., 229^th ECS meeting, May 29-June 6, 2016, Abstr. #475