Slug-Flow Reactor Manufacturing of Uniform Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese Oxide Microparticles for Battery Cathodes

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With expanding demand of lithium-ion batteries in portable electronic devices, such as smartphones and iPads and environmental-friendly vehicles (e.g., electric and hybrid vehicles), it is important to further improve safety, extend battery life, increase charge capacity, and reduce cost. A key missing component is effective and efficient manufacturing of complex active cathode materials, such as nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide micron-sized particles, at needed production scales. Cathode microparticle quality and uniformity are difficult to control with current reactor technologies, requiring post-synthesis procedures such as milling and sieving to narrow the particle size distribution. This risks product quality and reduces production efficiency. This award supports research in an innovative slug-flow reactor manufacturing process to directly produce well-controlled microparticles for advanced battery performance and accelerated scale-up. The availability of controllable cathode materials makes electronic devices using lithium-ion batteries safer and of better quality at a lower cost. These advancements in battery technology contribute to the economic competitiveness of the U.S. One impact of this research is reduced environmental impact due to efficient materials use and increased battery life. The project engages women and under-represented minorities and encourages their active participation in the research project. The project develops education modules for use in courses such as chemical reaction engineering and senior design. Participation in the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Initiative, Early Research Initiative, and Discovery Program helps train undergraduate and high-school students.This research is to develop a new process for the manufacture of uniform nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) oxide microparticles to serve as cathodes in lithium-ion batteries. It explores a continuous slug-flow manufacturing technology. Microscopically, in a slug-flow reactor, each particle experiences the same environment with spatially uniform reaction kinetics and hydrodynamics conditions throughout the nucleation and growth process, leading to uniform particles with controlled compositions, microstructures and properties. Macroscopically, the manufacturing setup and conditions can remain the same while allowing convenient tuning of the production rate, i.e., scaling up or scaling down. The slug flow process is also equipped with in-line bright-field imaging for microparticle monitoring and quality control. The research advances the fundamental understanding of microparticle nucleation, growth, and reaction engineering. It also studies the link between microparticles with high uniformity and controlled spatial composition and battery performance, which sheds light on a rational way to produce next-generation battery materials.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.