Carbon electrodes for electrochemical applications

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for producing high-surface-area three-dimensional electrodes for electrochemical applications. In one embodiment, sheets of precursor material are interleaved with sheets of a sacrificial material and then bonded to a base comprising a precursor material with a precursor bonding material. The precursor sheets, base and bonding material preferably formed from the same precursor material. The bonded structure is then pyrolyzed to create a lithium intercalating structure and remove the sacrificial material. In another embodiment, a reactive-ion etching process is used to pattern 3D structures into a sheet of precursor material. The 3D structure is then converted into a lithium intercalating structure through pyrolysis. In both embodiments, the components of the structure to be heat treated preferably comprise the same lithium intercalating precursor materail. As a result, micro-scale high-aspect-ratio 3D electrode features having very fine structures can be patterned and created.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.