Electrochemically Grown Highly Textured Thick Ceramic Oxide Films for Energy Storage: A New Manufacturing Paradigm for Cathode Materials

Wednesday, 12 October 2022: 14:00
Room 315 (The Hilton Atlanta)
A. Patra and P. V. Braun (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Electrochemical synthesis of materials has contributed to significant breakthroughs in materials processing by replacing high temperature, cost and energy intensive pyrometallurgical processes. Noteworthy examples include aluminum extraction by Hall–Heroult process, electrowinning of copper, titanium extraction through the Kroll process, electrolytic production of steel, and electrochemical synthesis of cement. Increasing the energy and power density of alkali ion intercalated transition metal oxide cathodes which power electric cars and portable electronics, has been a growing topic of global techno-economic interest. Our work demonstrates a direct electrodeposition of thick ternary ceramic oxide films as an alternate scalable manufacturing technique for fabrication of binder-and-additive free cathode materials for secondary battery. Employing an intermediate temperature (200-400°C) molten hydroxide-based electrodeposition method, a general electrochemical growth strategy for multiple Li and Na ion cathode chemistries is demonstrated for the first time including NaCoO2, NaMnO2, LiCoO2, Li2MnO3, LiMnO2, LiMn2O4, (A. Patra, P.V. Braun et. al, PNAS, 2021) in a thick (> 50 µm) thick film form factor. In-plane and through-plane texture can be electrochemically architectured in LiCoO2 and NaCoO2 films across multiple textures: <003>||ND (Li/Na ion blocking sites parallel to the normal direction), <101>||ND, <104>||ND, <110>||ND (fast lithium ion conducting sites parallel to the normal direction). An accurate control of crystallization dynamics leads to highly anisotropic, grain boundary engineered structure with low tortuosity and fastest electron and Li ion conducting pathways (<110>||ND) oriented normal to the current collector. The highly textured (<110>||ND), dense (>95%) electroplated cathodes can perform even at ultrahigh thickness of ~ 200 µm (areal capacity of ~13.6 mAh/cm2) in comparison to 40-60 µm for conventional slurry cast cathodes (areal capacity of ~3-4 mAh/cm2 with a porosity of ~10-20%), a fivefold increase in areal capacity and volumetric energy density (A. Patra, P.V. Braun et. al, to be submitted). In order to enable a high voltage (> 4.5 V vs. Li) cathode design, a functionally graded architecture is also demonstrated with a core capable of providing high-capacity and rate capability (LCO <110>||ND); and multiple capping layers (LCO <003>||ND and Li2MnO3) to suppress harmful side reactions occurring at voltages beyond the normal operation range (beyond 4.2 V vs. Li). Our work paves the way towards an electrosynthesis platform for functional oxides with the ability to generate micron scale ordering with controllable in-and-through-plane orientation in thick ceramic oxide films important for electrochemical energy storage.