STTR Phase I: Scalable Integration of Graphene-Enhanced Coatings for High-Energy Lithium-Ion Battery Cathodes

STTR第一阶段项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是将下一代锂离子电池材料商业化，并将其整合到当前的电池制造基础设施中。具体地说，先进涂层技术的即插即用功能和卷到卷处理路径的开发将展示其与现有商业电池生产线轻松集成的潜力。基于石墨烯的涂层创新还有可能加快新型高性能锂离子电池材料的市场采用率，并推进当前储能能力的发展轨迹，以满足日益苛刻的社会对电气化(如电动汽车)的需求。此外，这种基于石墨烯的技术成功商业化，用于锂离子电池等高价值应用，将进一步验证石墨烯的商业潜力，并活跃其不断增长的市场。最后，由于目前的主要电池制造商名单主要由非美国公司主导，这项提议为新兴的国内技术提供了一个明确的机会，通过开发新的储能解决方案和先进的制造创新来提高美国在绿色能源领域的技术竞争力。这项STTR第一阶段项目提出的研究活动将展示基于石墨烯的涂层技术如何进步，以大规模生产具有均匀保形涂层的新兴正极材料粉末，从而使其性能最大化。由此产生的创新将是一种独特的基于纳米材料的添加剂，可以无缝集成到现有的制造工艺中，并促进下一代锂离子电池在从无人机到电动汽车等新兴应用中的商业化。这项开发工作同时探索了石墨烯涂层作为保护性添加剂解决方案的可扩展性和适用性，以解决实验电池活性材料面临的关键技术问题，这些材料具有比最先进水平高得多的理论能量密度，但存在化学不稳定性、电池阻抗高和堆积密度差的问题。拟议研究活动的总体目标是开发：(1)用于高能量密度和最大化倍率能力的新型正极纳米库的可扩展生产方法；(2)在正极纳米颗粒上应用均匀的共形石墨烯涂层的可扩展生产方法；(3)通过目标(1)和(2)的共同努力，为纳米结构正极颗粒提供优化的浆料和电极配方，这将指导电池制造工作走向工业格式的电池原型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this STTR Phase I project is the commercialization of next-generation lithium-ion battery materials and their integration into the current battery manufacturing infrastructure. Specifically, the development of drop-in functionality and roll-to-roll processing pathways for advanced coating technology will demonstrate its potential for facile integration with existing commercial battery production lines. The graphene-based coating innovation also has the potential to accelerate the market adoption rate of novel, high-performance lithium-ion battery materials and advance the current trajectory for energy storage capabilities to meet increasingly rigorous societal demands for electrification (e.g., electric vehicles). In addition, the successful commercialization of this graphene-based technology for a high-value application such as lithium-ion batteries will further validate the commercial potential of graphene and invigorate its growing market. Finally, since the current list of major battery manufacturers is dominated by non-U.S. companies, this proposal presents a clear opportunity for emerging domestic technology to enhance technical competitiveness of the U.S. in the green energy sector through the development of novel energy storage solutions and advanced manufacturing innovations.This STTR Phase I Project proposes research activities that will demonstrate how graphene-based coating technologies can advance to yield powders of emerging cathode materials in large scale with uniform conformal coatings that maximize their performance. The resulting innovation will be a unique nanomaterial-based additive that can be seamlessly integrated into existing manufacturing processes and facilitate commercialization of next-generation lithium-ion batteries in emerging applications from drones to electric vehicles. This development effort concurrently explores the scalability and applicability of the graphene-based coatings as a protective additive solution to address key technical issues facing experimental battery active materials, which have significantly higher theoretical energy density than state-of-the-art but suffer from chemical instability, high cell impedance, and poor packing density issues. The overarching goals of the proposed research activities are to develop: (1) a scalable production approach for a library of novel cathode nanoparticles for high energy density and maximized rate capability; (2) a scalable production method of applying uniform conformal graphene-based coatings on cathode nanoparticles; (3) an optimized slurry and electrode formulation for the nanostructured cathode particles from the combined efforts of objectives (1) and (2), which will guide cell fabrication efforts toward industry-format battery prototypes.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.