Method of preparing lithium ion battery electrode having micro-pathways
AssigneeNissan North America, Inc.
InventorsYing Liu, Taehee Han, Yoshitaka Uehara
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Abstract
A method of preparing an electrode for a lithium-ion battery includes coating a slurry of electrode material onto a current collector, penetrating the slurry with rods coated with a polymer that expands when heated and shrinks when cooled, heating the rods coated with polymer while penetrated in the slurry. The polymer expands during heating, and then shrinks when cooled. The cooled rods and the polymer are removed from the slurry, leaving micro-pathways in the slurry where the rods and polymer penetrated.
Claims20
A method of preparing an electrode for a lithium-ion battery, the method comprising:
- coating a slurry of electrode material onto a current collector;
- penetrating the slurry with rods coated with a polymer that expands when heated and shrinks when cooled;
- heating the rods coated with polymer while penetrated in the slurry, the polymer expanding during heating;
- cooling the rods and the polymer;
- and
- removing the rods and the polymer from the slurry, leaving micro-pathways in the slurry where the rods and polymer penetrated.
A method of preparing an electrode for a lithium-ion battery, the method comprising:
- coating a slurry of electrode material onto a current collector, the slurry having a thickness;
- penetrating the slurry with rods coated with a polymer that expands when heated and shrinks when cooled, the rods uniformly spaced within the slurry and penetrating the slurry greater than 86% of the thickness and less than 100% of the thickness, the rods having a thermal conductivity of 200 W/m·K or greater;
- heating the electrode and rods coated with polymer while penetrated in the slurry to dry the slurry, the polymer expanding during heating;
- cooling the electrode, the rods and the polymer, the polymer shrinking during cooling;
- and
- removing the rods and the polymer from the slurry, leaving micro-pathways in the slurry where the rods and polymer penetrated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.