Lithium-Ion Batteries with Safer Current Collectors

Li, Jianlin; Wang, Hsin; Allu, Srikanth; Simunovic, Srdjan; Livingston, Kelsey (Grady); Dudney, Nancy; Morin, Brain; Hu, Carl; Pereira, Drew; Brinson, Amy

doi:10.2172/1895226

DOE OSTI · 1895226

Lithium-Ion Batteries with Safer Current Collectors

Li, Jianlin·Wang, Hsin·Allu, Srikanth·Simunovic, Srdjan·Livingston, Kelsey (Grady)·Dudney, Nancy·Morin, Brain·Hu, Carl·Pereira, Drew·Brinson, Amy

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Abstract

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Soteria Battery Innovation Group collaborated to develop a metallized polymer film as a current collector for lithium-ion batteries and design slit patterns for electrodes to improve battery safety. The metallized polymer film serves as a fuse that will break under high temperature resulting from a short circuit. Consequently, the short circuit will be broken and the heat generated from the short circuit will be alleviated to avoid thermal runaway. The electrodes with slit patterns are expected to be broken into small segments upon mechanical impact, which can isolate the damaged electrodes from the rest. Thus, the heat generation associated with the mechanical impact will be reduced, along with the likelihood of thermal runaway. This effort aimed to improve lithium-ion battery safety by replacing traditional metal foils with metallized polymer films as current collector and introducing slit patterns to battery electrodes. The metallized polymer films were polyethylene terephthalate with a thin metal (aluminum for cathodes and copper for anodes) coating on both sides. Slit patterns with various geometries and dimensions were designed via simulation. Temperature distribution on cells with electrodes with and without slit patterns was also simulated via nemerical modeling. Electrodes on traditional metal foils and metallized polymer films were coated via a pilot-scale slot-die coater at the US Department of Energy Battery Manufacturing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The electrodes were calendered to 35% porosity and punched out with and without slit patterns. Pouch cells were assembed with the electrodes inside a dry room for electrochemical and safety testing. Electrodes coated on metallized polymer films exhibited comparable electrochemical performance to their counterparts coated on traditional metal foils. They also showed improved safety in nail penetration and indentation tests.

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Li, Jianlin, Wang, Hsin, Allu, Srikanth, Simunovic, Srdjan, Livingston, Kelsey (Grady), Dudney, Nancy, Morin, Brain, Hu, Carl, Pereira, Drew, Brinson, Amy. 2022-10-01. Lithium-Ion Batteries with Safer Current Collectors. https://doi.org/10.2172/1895226

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