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US-12617017-B2 - Systems and methods for laser additive manufacturing for structured battery components

US12617017B2US 12617017 B2US12617017 B2US 12617017B2US-12617017-B2

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method for creating a powder for use in a selective laser sintering additive manufacturing (AM) application to form a battery component. In one aspect the method may comprise providing a battery component active material, a carbon material and a binder material. The active material and the binder material are mixed together in a first ratio in a mixer for a first time period, to carry out a first mixing operation, to produce a first mixture of active material and binder material. Carbon material may then be added to the first mixture of active material and binder material in a second ratio. The carbon material and the first mixture of active material and binder material may then be mixed for a second time period in a second mixing operation to form a homogeneously mixed powder.

Inventors

  • Jianchao Ye
  • Yiran XIAO
  • Zhen Qi
  • Erika Paola RAMOS GUZMAN

Assignees

  • LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL SECURITY, LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20230526

Claims (19)

  1. 1 . A method for creating a powder for use in a selective laser sintering additive manufacturing (AM) application to form a battery component, the method comprising: providing a battery component active material, a carbon material and a binder material; mixing the battery component active material and the binder material together in a first ratio in a mixer for a first time period, to carry out a first mixing operation, to produce a first mixture of battery component active material and binder material; and adding the carbon material to the first mixture of battery component active material and binder material in a second ratio, and mixing the carbon material with the first mixture of battery component active material and binder material for a second time period in a second mixing operation to form a homogeneously mixed powder.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the battery component active material comprises a dry powder consisting of Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC).
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the battery component active material comprises a cathode active material, and wherein the cathode active material comprises a dry powder of at least one of: NMC 811; NMC 622; NMC 532; NMC111; NCA (Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide); LCO (Lithium Cobalt Oxide); LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate); or a mixture thereof.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the carbon material comprises at least one of carbon black, graphite, graphene, carbon nanotubes, carbon fibers or a mixture thereof.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder comprises Polyvinylidene (PVDF).
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder comprises at least one of: Peracetic acid (PAA); Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC); Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE); Halide based solid state electrolytes; Oxyhalide based solid state electrolytes; Sulfide based solid state electrolytes; Oxide based solid state electrolytes; or a mixture thereof.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first ratio comprises a ratio of 70:20 to 90:2 of active material and binder.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second ratio comprises a ratio of 10:90 to 2:98 of carbon material to the first mixture of active material and binder material.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time period comprises a range of between 6-24 hours.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second time period comprises a range of between 1-8 hours.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein mixing the active material and the binder material together comprises mixing the active material and the binder material together in a roller mixer.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising using a plurality of mixing components in the mixer during the first and second mixing operations to assist in creating the first mixture of active material and binder material and the fully mixed powder.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the using of a plurality of mixing components comprises using a plurality of mixing balls of acrylic/Al2O3/YSZ.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the roller mixer is rotated at a rotational speed of 50-100 rpm during each of the first and second predetermined time periods.
  15. 15 . A method for creating a powder for use in a selective laser sintering additive manufacturing (AM) application to form a battery cathode, the method comprising: providing a cathode active material, a carbon material and a binder material; mixing the cathode active material and the binder material together in a first ratio in a roller mixer for a first time period at a first rotational speed, to produce a first mixture of active material and binder material, the first ratio including a ratio of from 70:20 to 90:2 of the cathode active material and the binder material; adding the carbon material to the first mixture of cathode active material and binder material in a second ratio in the roller mixer, the second ratio including a ratio of 10:90 to 2:98 of the carbon material and the first mixture of cathode active material and binder material; and mixing the carbon material with the first mixture of cathode active material and binder material in the roller mixer at a second predetermined speed for a second time period to form a homogeneous powder mixture.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the cathode active material comprises a dry powder including at least one of: NMC 811; NMC 622; NMC 532; NMC111; NCA (Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide); LCO (Lithium Cobalt Oxide); LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate); or a mixture thereof.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the binder comprises at least one of: Polyvinylidene (PVDF); Peracetic acid (PAA); Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC); Polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE); Halide based solid state electrolytes; Oxyhalide based solid state electrolytes; Sulfide based solid state electrolytes; Oxide based solid state electrolytes; or a mixture thereof.
  18. 18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the carbon material comprises at least one of carbon black, graphite, or a mixture thereof.
  19. 19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein: the first and second rotational speeds are within a range of 50-100 rpm; the first predetermined time period is between 6-24 hours; and the second predetermined time period is from 1-8 hours.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a bypass continuation-in-part patent application which claims priority to PCT International Application No. PCT/US23/17599, filed Apr. 5, 2023, which in turn claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/714,599 filed on Apr. 6, 2022. The entire disclosures of the above applications are incorporated herein by reference. FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344 awarded by the United States Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in the invention. FIELD The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for manufacturing batteries and components thereof, and more particularly to systems and methods for mixing different material components to form a homogeneous powder mixture which is well suited for use in various additive manufacturing applications, and particularly so in manufacturing battery components using a selective laser sintering additive manufacturing process. BACKGROUND The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art. Accelerated adoption of lithium batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and grid storage requires lowering battery manufacturing costs while retaining high power and energy densities. Although tape casting-based, roll-to-roll manufacturing has enabled lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to reach a cell-level cost of $107/kWhrated (2021 BatPaC, ANL) at the present time. And there is strong interest in still further cost reduction and performance improvements for LIBs. According to BatPaC cost analysis, the cell manufacturing represents 17.1% of total cost of manufacturing a LIB, from which electrode processing contributes the most. LIB manufacturing has traditionally been expensive for a number of reasons. One is the use of solvents during processing (e.g., N-Methylpyrrolidone (“NMP”), H2O, etc.). The use of solvents necessitates long drying times and drives high energy consumption. Moreover, many solvents such as NMP are toxic to humans and present hazards for the environment, requiring expensive recovering and safety protocols. Therefore, the elimination of the use of solvent in LIB manufacturing processes has particularly strong interest. Besides the cost reduction, battery performance improvement, especially in LIBs with higher energy and power densities, is also presently being sought to accelerate the electrification revolution. Simply thickening a battery electrode in the tape-casting method increases energy density but lowers power density. To retrieve the power density, fast ionic and electronic transport channels are critical in the designs of the structured electrodes. Various technologies have been proposed to generate the structured electrodes, such as casting head designs, laser hole-drilling, 3D scaffolds with loaded active materials, and 3D printing. However, the use of a solvent, the low integration ability and high processing cost of present day manufacturing technologies, are all challenges that still need to be addressed. Still another challenge when manufacturing battery components for use in batteries such as LIBs, using a selective laser sintering (“SLS”) Additive Manufacturing (“AM”) process, is obtaining a homogeneous mixture of powder from the constituent components being used to form the powder mixture. For example, it is important both for electrical performance, as well as for good adhesion of the sintered powder to an underlying metal substrate, for example a layer of aluminum foil, that the constituents of the powder form a homogeneous mixture. SUMMARY This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features. In one aspect the present disclosure relates to a system for making an electrically conductive battery component. The system uses a metal layer forming a planar metal substrate, and a powder deposition component for applying a powder to form a powder layer on the planar metal substrate. A laser is used and configured to generate a laser beam to selectively sinter portions, or all, of the powder layer using a predetermined beam scanning pattern. A subsystem is used to remove portions of the powder layer that are not sintered by the laser to leave a planar finished material layer. In another aspect of the system the metal layer comprises an aluminum layer. In another aspect of the system the powder deposition component comprises an electrostatic spray gun for imparting an electrical charge to the powder as the powder is discharged from a nozzle of the electrostatic spray gun. In another aspect of the system the laser comprises a continuous wave CO2 laser. In another aspect of the system a laser power of between 1 W and 1 kW is used in operating the laser. In another aspect of the system the laser is operated to provide a v