Plasma battery electrode coating on current collector pretreated with conducive material

A method of making an electrode for a lithium-ion cell using an atmospheric plasma to deposit a layer of particles of active electrode material on a surface of a metal current collector foil when the surface of the metal current collector foil has an integral film of an oxide of the metal, the film of the oxide being less than about one micrometer in thickness, the method comprising:

• applying a layer of an electrically conducive polymer composition on the film of metal oxide over the surface area of the metal current collector foil to which the particles of active electrode material are to be applied, the thickness of the layer of polymer composition being no greater than about three micrometers and the electrically conductivity of the polymer layer composition providing electron conductivity between the current collector foil and the active electrode material to be deposited;
• forming an atmospheric plasma-activated, gas-borne stream of particles of the active electrode material and depositing the particles from the stream onto the electrically conductive particle-filled polymer layer to form a porous layer of the electrode material particles on the polymer layer;
• and then
• applying a binder material to the porous layer of electrode material particles to bond the electrode material particles to each other as an integral porous layer of electrode material particles and to bond the electrode layer to the polymer surface, the thickness of the bonded integral porous electrode layer being up to about two hundred micrometers.