3D-Printed Battery Electrodes Manufacturing Technology Centre (Coventry)

未来锂离子、钠离子和下一代电池的复杂性可能会针对特定应用而量身定做，高性能(高能量或功率密度)电池将用于具有挑战性的应用，如垂直起降(VTOL)飞机，而标准的商品电池将可以满足大众市场应用，如个人交通工具。许多电池制造技术相对较低，辊对辊浆料涂层是沉积电极的首选方法。浆料涂层很好地满足了大众市场的要求，它速度快，成本低，具有充分的工艺控制，但它缺乏非常高性能电池可能需要的几何自由度。电池的添加制造(AM)或3D打印为高性能电池提供了几乎有限的设计自由来探索、形状、几何、化学和成分，然而，仍需要对沉积材料的配方和加工进行基础研究。这具体涉及电极印刷的材料规格和配方、工艺选择和优化。这个EngD项目将通过研究不同的添加剂制造技术来解决这些缺点，这些技术包括立体光刻、粘结剂喷射和激光粉床熔化(LPBF)等新型电池化学方法。这将需要为选定的AM技术和打印工艺进行配方设计，以便能够制造高性能的3D打印单元。将进行物理和电化学模拟，以优化设计的电池的性能，并通过物理制造和测试进行验证。AM所需的溶剂和粘结剂材料可能与浆料涂层中使用的溶剂和粘结剂材料有很大不同。该项目将寻求通过(1)研究下一代电池技术；钠、锂、镁或混合离子系统；(2)从制造过程中去除令人不快的溶剂，如NMP(1-甲基-2-吡咯烷酮)；(3)开发低成本和可再生的粘结剂系统，并考虑回收和回收；(4)以更少的浪费提供更好的材料利用率，特别是对于用于高性能电池的昂贵和稀缺的正极材料，这一点尤其重要。

The complexity of future lithium-ion, sodium-ion and next generation batteriesare likely to be tailored to specific applications with high performance (highenergy or power density) cells used in challenging applications such as VerticalTake-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft whereas standard, commodity cells willbe acceptable to fulfil mass market applications, like personal transport. Much ofcell manufacturing is relatively low-tech, with roll-to-roll slurry coating beingthe preferred method for depositing electrodes. Slurry coating matches the mass-market requirements well, it is fast, low cost and has sufficient process control,but it lacks geometric freedom that may be required for very high-performancecells. Additive Manufacturing (AM) or 3D-printing of batteries offers almostunlimited freedom of design to explore, shape, geometry, chemistry andcomposition for high performance cells, however, fundamental research is stillrequired into formulation and processing of the materials for deposition. Thisspecifically involves material specification and recipe, process selection andoptimisation for electrode printing.This EngD project will look to address some of these shortcomings byinvestigating different additive manufacturing technologies, with novel batterychemistries, from stereo-lithography, binder-jet and laser powder-bed fusion(LPBF). This will require formulation design for the selected AM technologiesand the print processes optimised to enable manufacture high performance 3Dprinted cells. Physical and electro-chemical modelling will be conducted tooptimise performance of the designed cells with verification coming from thephysical build and test. The solvents and binder materials required for AM arelikely to be vastly different from those used in slurry coating.The project will look to improve both the sustainability and green credentials ofthe product and process respectively by(1) investigating next generation battery technologies; sodium, lithium,magnesium, or mixed-ion systems,(2) removing unpleasant solvents such as NMP (1-Methyl-2-pyrrolidinone) fromthe manufacturing process and(3) developing low cost and renewable binder systems with recycling andreclamation in mind,(4) offering better material utilisation with less wastage, important particularly for expensive and scarce cathode materials used in high performance cells.