Prismatic cell improvement through better mechanical design

该项目旨在为锂离子电池的电极和标签开发一种新的连接策略，从而使能量密度提高9%，成本降低4%，并减少制造足迹。自20世纪90年代第一批商用电池问世以来，锂离子电池的性能得到了极大的提高。这种性能的提高主要是由阴极、阳极电极和电解质的化学成分的改进所驱动的。近年来，这种改善的速度已开始趋于平稳。因此，电池开发人员正在寻找新的化学系统来证明这些改进，例如固态电池、锂硫电池和锂空气电池，这些电池距离商业发布还有很多年的时间。相反，电池的机械设计，内部连接，标签，胶带，电极结构，在很大程度上保持不变。通过改进锂离子电池的机械设计，在未来十年左右的时间里，随着新电池技术的发展，锂离子电池的性能可以继续提高。这笔拨款将用于开发和验证这项新技术的原型。

This project looks to develop a new connection strategy for electrodes and tabs in lithium-ion battery cells leading to a 9% boost in energy density, 4% reduction in cost and smaller manufacturing footprint.The performance of lithium-ion cells has increased enormously since the first commercial cells were released in the 1990s. This performance increase has been largely driven by improvements in the chemical composition of the cathode and anode electrodes and the electrolyte. Over recent years the rate of this improvements has begun to plateau. Consequently, cell developers are looking for new chemical systems to demonstrate those improvements such as: solid-state, lithium-sulphur, and lithium-air batteries which are still many years from a commercial release.Conversely, the mechanical design of cells, the internal connections, tabs, tapes, electrode structure, has largely remained the same. By improving the mechanical design of lithium ion cells the performance can continue to increase while new cell technologies are developed over the next decade or so.The grant will be used to develop and validate prototypes of this new technology.