Recently, a wide variety of nickel-rich, lithium-ion battery cathode materials have been reported showing immense promise for next-generation batteries for electric vehicles. Despite the promising performance advantages exhibited by these cathode materials, achieving these metrics in commercial scale batteries requires effective translation of materials and processing parameters from bench/lab scale to upscaled pilot/industrial scale infrastructures. This requires systematic investigations into scale-up parameters starting with precursor manufacturing, solid state reaction for lithium incorporation to battery manufacturing specifications. Moreover, any solutions developed to address the upscaling of these novel cathode materials should facilitate seamless integration into existing global battery manufacturing infrastructures with minimal disruption to avoid intensive capital and operational costs.[1] In this context, this talk is centered around the upscaling challenges encountered in the scale up of our team’s novel cobalt-free, nickel-rich cathode formulations, having the general formula, LiNi_xM1_yM2_zO₂ (where, M1 and M2 are other metal ions, x + y + z = 1, cobalt content = 0).[2,3] By employing advanced characterization techniques such as in-situ high temperature X-Ray and Neutron diffraction during phase formation and operando investigations using X-Ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy during electrochemical studies, we have previously highlighted the mechanistic phenomena governing charge storage in these novel materials. Following which, our team systematically undertook the scale-up efforts of the best performing variants of these cathode materials and successfully demonstrated lithium-ion batteries enabled by such cathode materials. Upscaling processes of such cathode materials from bench/lab scale to pilot/industrial scale can be broadly segregated into two steps: (i) cathode precursor synthesis and Li incorporation[2,3] and (ii) electrode processing and cell assembly[4]. For such cathode systems, upscaled synthesis would typically involve the widely commercialized coprecipitation process where process parameters such as pH, flow-rate, stirring speed, etc. would play crucial roles in determining the properties of the final cathode materials. Similar parameters need to be systematically investigated for the Li incorporation, electrode processing and cell assembly steps. The discussed issues and their solutions are broadly applicable to a wide range of nickel rich cathode chemistries developed for incorporation in lithium-ion batteries for next-generation electric vehicles.

References:

[1] Muralidharan, Nitin, et al. "Next‐Generation Cobalt‐Free Cathodes–A Prospective Solution to the Battery Industry's Cobalt Problem." Advanced Energy Materials (2022): 2103050.

[2] Muralidharan, Nitin, et al. "LiNixFeyAlzO2, a new cobalt-free layered cathode material for advanced Li-ion batteries." Journal of Power Sources 471 (2020): 228389.

[3] Muralidharan, Nitin, et al. "Lithium Iron Aluminum Nickelate, LiNixFeyAlzO2—New Sustainable Cathodes for Next‐Generation Cobalt‐Free Li‐Ion Batteries." Advanced Materials 32.34 (2020): 2002960.

[4] Wood III, David L., et al. "Perspectives on the relationship between materials chemistry and roll-to-roll electrode manufacturing for high-energy lithium-ion batteries." Energy Storage Materials (2020).