Lithium ion battery materials
AssigneeAmastan Technologies LLC
InventorsKamal Hadidi, Gregory Wrobel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present disclosure relates to methodologies, systems and apparatus for generating lithium ion battery materials. Starting materials are combined to form a homogeneous precursor solution including lithium, and a droplet maker is used to generate droplets of the precursor solution having controlled size. These droplets are introduced into a microwave generated plasma, where micron or sub-micron scale lithium-containing particles are formed. These lithium-containing particles are collected and formed into a slurry to form lithium ion battery materials.
Claims20
A method for generating lithium ion battery materials comprising:
- combining starting materials to form a homogeneous precursor solution including lithium;
- generating droplets with controlled size of the homogeneous precursor solution using a droplet maker;
- introducing the droplets of the homogeneous precursor solution into a microwave generated plasma;
- producing micron or sub-micron scale lithium-containing particles from the microwave generated plasma;
- collecting the lithium-containing particles;
- and
- forming a slurry with the lithium-containing particles to form lithium ion battery materials.
A method of tailoring lithium ion battery materials comprising:
- combining starting materials to form a homogeneous precursor solution including lithium;
- generating droplets with controlled size of the homogeneous precursor solution using a droplet maker;
- introducing the droplets of the homogeneous precursor solution into a microwave generated plasma;
- producing micron or sub-micron scale lithium-containing particles from the microwave generated plasma;
- quenching the lithium-containing particles;
- and
- tailoring at least one of:
- porosity, morphology, particle size, particle size distribution, or chemical composition of the lithium-containing particles by controlling at least one of:
- precursor solution chemistry, droplet size, plasma gas flow rates, residence time of the droplets within the microwave generated plasma, quenching rate, or power density of the microwave generated plasma.
A method for preparing lithium-containing particles represented by the formula:
- LiNixMnyCozO2
- wherein x≧0, y≧0, z≧0, and x+y+z=1;
- the method comprising:
- dissolving a combination of lithium salt, nickel salt, manganese salt, and cobalt salt in a solvent to form a homogeneous precursor solution;
- generating droplets with controlled size of the homogeneous precursor solution using a droplet maker;
- introducing the droplets into a microwave generated plasma;
- producing micron or sub-micron scale particles of LiNixMnyCozO2 from the microwave generated plasma;
- and
- collecting the particles of LiNixMnyCozO2.
A method for preparing lithium-containing particles represented by the formula:
- LiNixCoyAlzO2
- wherein x=˜0.8, y=˜0.15, z=˜0.05;
- the method comprising:
- dissolving a combination of lithium salt, nickel salt, cobalt salt, and aluminum salt in a solvent to form a homogeneous precursor solution;
- generating uniformly sized droplets of the homogeneous precursor solution using a droplet maker;
- introducing the uniformly sized droplets into a microwave generated plasma;
- producing micron or sub-micron scale particles of LiNixCoyAlzO2 from the microwave generated plasma;
- and
- collecting the particles of LiNixCoyAlzO2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.