Customizable Nonplanar Printing of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used in consumer electronics due to their rechargeability and high energy density. Commercial LIBs are fabricated in fixed geometries such as cylinder, coin, and pouch. However, for specialized applications such as wearable electronics and on-device power systems, customizable LIBs with arbitrary geometry on three-dimensional (3D) structures need to be developed. For this purpose, aerosol printing is uniquely suitable due to its flexible working distance, allowing deposition on nonplanar substrates with multiscale surface topologies. Aerosol printing of LiFePO4 cathodes and Li4Ti5O12 anodes for LIBs is presented. Electrodes with an arbitrary geometry, tailorable thickness and on nonplanar substrates can be realized. The highest areal capacity achieved is ≈7.1 mAh cm-2, which is at least twice that of conventional electrodes. Furthermore, to package the printed electrodes, 3D enclosures are fabricated via fused deposition modeling of polyvinylidene fluoride. The printed electrodes packaged in 3D enclosures exhibit 78.4% capacity retention after 30 cycles. With the two additive manufacturing processes, customizable LIBs on targeted objects can be realized. A nonplanar LIB conformably covering the edge of a block with specific capacity of 135 mAh g-1 is demonstrated.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for Research in Energy and Environment (CREE)

Second Research Center/Lab

Center for High Performance Computing Research

Keywords and Phrases

Additive Manufacturing; Aerosol Printing; Lithium-Ion Batteries; Nonplanar Printing; Printed Batteries

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2365-709X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2019 Wiley-Blackwell, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Nov 2019

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