The structural engineering for achieving high energy density Li-ion batteries

doi:10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2020.0147

Abstract

Abstract:

Electric vehicle (EV) market has had an aggressive development in the last years, and Chinese market has more than 50% share of global capacity. However, there are still some important social barriers that must be overcome to get the expected BEV market penetration, mostly related to the cost, distance range capacity, charging time and infrastructure. Range anxiety is a key reason that consumers are reluctant to embrace EVs. To be truly competitive with gasoline vehicles, EVs should allow drivers to recharge quickly anywhere in any weather, like refueling gasoline cars, or carry more useful energies with high energy density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The need to improve performances and reduce costs of LIBs encourages different research strategies. In general, the methods toward achieving higher energy density LIBs can be summarized in two ways: ① the development of novel battery chemistries with higher specific capacity and ② the exploration of advanced battery configurations with increased electrochemical active material ratio via electrode architecture engineering. However, the novel battery chemistries have a long journey to be used industrially, structural engineering provides a feasible and universal way to further improve the energy density of LIBs without changing the fundamental battery chemistries. Recently the attention is focusing on increasing the electrodes areal capacity to enable the substantial reduction of the current collectors, porous separator, and electrolyte resulting in large gravimetric and volumetric energy density improvements as well as cost savings. Moreover, increasing electrode thickness and density is a most effective approach to achieve high energy density of LIBs, but high tortuosity and low wettability in the electrodes deteriorate the LIB performance, such power density and cycling life. Herein, we introduce various methods to create low tortuosity nanostructures, such as templating and micro fabrications, and the structural designs by adopting laser-structured or multi-layer coating technologies to realize a low tortuosity electrode in the commercialized LIBs are highlighted.

Key words: Li-ion batteries, energy density, structural engineering, thick electrode

CLC Number:

TM 911

YANG Xulai, ZHANG Zheng, CAO Yong, LIU Chengshi, AI Xinping. The structural engineering for achieving high energy density Li-ion batteries[J]. Energy Storage Science and Technology, 2020, 9(4): 1127-1136.

Figures/Tables 5

Table 1

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Table 3

Table 4

Fig.1

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电池包能量密度/W·h·kg^-1	政策资金补贴系数
电池包能量密度/W·h·kg^-1	2017年	2018年	2019年
90≤X<105	1.0	0	0
105≤X<120	1.0	0. 6	0
120≤X<140	1.1	1.0	0.6
140≤X<160	1.1	1.1	1.0
160≤X	1.1	1.2	1.1

固定参数	设计值	可变参数	设计值
磷酸铁锂可发挥容量/mA·h·g^-1	143	正极压实密度/mg·mm^-3	2.15
石墨负极可发挥容量/mA·h·g^-1	350	负极压实密度/mg·mm^-3	1.45
隔膜密度/mg·mm^-3	0.91	正极活性物质占比/%	91.0
铝箔密度/mg·mm^-3	2.7	负极活性物质占比/%	94.0
铜箔密度/mg·mm^-3	8.9	铝箔厚度/mm	0.015
电解液密度/mg·mm^-3	1.3	铜箔厚度/mm	0.009
单片正极尺寸/mm	141×78	隔膜厚度/mm	0.020
单片负极尺寸/mm	143×80	面积N/P比	1.2
单片隔膜尺寸/mm	145×82	正极面密度/mg·mm^-2	0.14
		电解液注液量/g·(A·h)^-1	4.8
		电池尺寸/mm	26.5×148×91

电极材料	LiCoO₂	NCM111	LiFePO₄	LiMn₂O₄	石墨
真密度/g·cm^-3	5.1	4.8	3.6	4.2	2.25
压实密度/g·cm^-3	4.3	3.7	2.5	3.2	1.78

工艺参数	设计值	调整值	质量能量密度增加百分比	体积能量密度增加百分比
正极压实密度/mg·mm^-3	2.15	2.4	0.6%	5.1%
负极压实密度/mg·mm^-3	1.45	1.7	0.6%	5.1%
电解液注液量/g·(A·h)^-1	4.8	4.0	3.4%	0.0%
正极活性物质占比/%	91.0	96.0	3.2%	4.1%
负极活性物质占比/%	94.0	97.0	0.6%	1.2%
正极面密度/mg·mm^-2	0.14	0.21	3.2%	4.1%
面积N/P比	1.2	1.1	1.7%	2.4%
铝箔厚度/mm	0.015	0.012	1.1%	1.3%
铜箔厚度/mm	0.009	0.006	3.7%	1.3%
隔膜厚度/mm	0.020	0.017	1.0%	2.5%
电池尺寸/mm	26.5×148×91	79×148×91	4.9%	3.2%
		各参数同时调整后	31.8%	38.5%

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