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

随着锂离子电池在智能手机、ipad等便携式电子设备和环保车辆（如电动和混合动力汽车）中的需求不断扩大，进一步提高安全性、延长电池寿命、增加充电容量和降低成本变得非常重要。一个关键的缺失部分是在所需的生产规模上有效和高效地制造复杂的活性阴极材料，如镍钴锰氧化物微米级颗粒。目前的反应器技术很难控制阴极微粒的质量和均匀性，需要进行磨矿和筛分等合成后程序来缩小颗粒尺寸分布。这会影响产品质量，降低生产效率。该奖项支持一项创新的段塞流反应器制造工艺的研究，该工艺可直接生产出控制良好的微粒，用于提高电池性能和加速放大。可控阴极材料的可用性使得使用锂离子电池的电子设备更安全，质量更好，成本更低。电池技术的这些进步有助于提高美国的经济竞争力。这项研究的一个影响是，由于高效的材料使用和延长电池寿命，减少了对环境的影响。该项目吸引妇女和代表性不足的少数民族参与，并鼓励他们积极参与研究项目。该项目开发了用于化学反应工程和高级设计等课程的教育模块。参与院长本科生研究计划、早期研究计划和发现计划有助于培养本科生和高中生。本研究旨在开发一种制造均匀镍钴锰（NCM）氧化物微粒的新工艺，以作为锂离子电池的阴极。探索了一种连续段塞流制造技术。从微观上看，在段塞流反应器中，每个颗粒在整个成核和生长过程中都经历了相同的环境，具有空间均匀的反应动力学和流体动力学条件，从而形成了均匀的颗粒，其成分、微观结构和性能都受到控制。从宏观上看，生产设置和条件可以保持不变，同时允许方便地调整生产率，即扩大或缩小规模。段塞流过程还配备了在线亮场成像，用于微粒监测和质量控制。该研究促进了对微粒成核、生长和反应工程的基本认识。研究高均匀度、可控空间组成的微粒与电池性能之间的关系，为下一代电池材料的合理生产提供思路。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.