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

未来锂离子电池、钠离子电池和下一代电池的复杂性可能会针对特定应用进行定制，如垂直起降（VTOL）飞机等具有挑战性的应用中使用的高性能（高能量或功率密度）电池，而标准的商品电池将被接受以满足大众市场应用，如个人运输。大多数电池制造技术含量相对较低，采用卷对卷的浆液涂层是沉积电极的首选方法。浆液涂层很好地满足了大众市场的需求，它速度快，成本低，并且有足够的过程控制，但它缺乏非常高性能电池可能需要的几何自由度。电池的增材制造（AM）或3d打印为高性能电池的设计探索、形状、几何、化学和成分提供了几乎无限的自由，然而，仍然需要对沉积材料的配方和加工进行基础研究。这特别涉及到电极印刷的材料规格和配方，工艺选择和优化。EngD项目将通过研究不同的增材制造技术来解决这些缺点，包括立体光刻、粘结剂喷射和激光粉末床融合（LPBF）等新型电池化学技术。这将需要针对所选择的增材制造技术进行配方设计，并优化打印工艺，以制造高性能3d打印单元。将进行物理和电化学建模，以优化设计电池的性能，并通过物理构建和测试进行验证。增材制造所需的溶剂和粘合剂材料可能与浆料涂层中使用的溶剂和粘合剂材料大不相同。该项目将分别通过(1)研究下一代电池技术来提高产品和工艺的可持续性和绿色认证；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-吡罗烷酮），(3)开发低成本和可再生的粘合剂系统，考虑到回收和再生，(4)提供更好的材料利用率和更少的浪费，这对于高性能电池中使用的昂贵和稀缺的正极材料尤其重要。

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.