Perspectives on the Relationship Between Materials Chemistry and Roll-to-Roll Electrode Manufacturing for High-Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries

As lithium-ion battery (LIB) active material costs continue to drop with wider adoption of electric vehicles, electrode and cell processing costs remain a problem in terms of reaching the ultimate U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cell cost targets of $80/kWh.  This presentation will cover major materials chemistry advancements made over the last 10 years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the space of advanced manufacturing science for LIBs with the aim of simultaneously meeting the ultimate cost target, 500 Wh/kg gravimetric energy density, 10-15 fast charge times, and 1000 deep discharge cycles.  Aqueous electrode processing with a variety of active anode and cathode materials is now a standard procedure at the DOE Battery Manufacturing R&D Facility at ORNL (BMF), including the latest processes developed for Ni-rich cathodes.  In addition, colloidal processing advancements have been made for Si/C composite anodes for achieving >500 mAh/g capacities.  Optimization of electrode coating parameters and drying protocols have been completed, which has elucidated how key processing variables need to be changed when parameters such as slurry solids loading, solvent type, and wet electrode thickness are changed.  ORNL has also increased the line speeds at which thick cathodes can be processed using ultra-fast electron beam (EB) curing, and it has also substantially decreased formation cycling times to <1 day.  Key details of these advancements are discussed in the context of materials chemistry and process-property-performance relationships.

David Wood is a Senior Staff Scientist and University of Tennessee Bredesen Center Faculty Member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researching novel electrode architectures, mass transport phenomena, solid-liquid surface chemistry, advanced processing methods, manufacturing science, and materials characterization for low-temperature fuel cells, PEM electrolyzers, and lithium-ion batteries, and has been employed there since 2009.  He is also the former ORNL Fuel Cell Technologies Program Manager (2011-2018), the former Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Team and Group Leader (2015-2017), and a well-known energy conversion and storage researcher with an industrial and academic career that began in 1995.  From 1997 to 2002, he was employed by General Motors Corporation and SGL Carbon Group, excelling at applied R&D related to automotive and stationary PEFC technology.  Later work (2003-2009) at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Cabot Corporation focused on elucidation of key chemical degradation mechanisms, development of accelerated testing methods, and component development.  Dr. Wood received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1994, his M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Electrochemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2007.  He was part of two LANL research teams that won the DOE Hydrogen Program R&D Award for outstanding achievement in 2005 and 2009.  He was also part of the Cabot Corporation Direct Methanol Fuel Cell team, which won the Samuel W. Bodman Award for Excellence in 2008.  Dr. Wood was also the 2011 winner of the ORNL Early Career Award for Engineering Accomplishment and led a team that won both a 2013 R&D 100 award and 2014 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) award with Porous Power Technologies.  He has received 18 patents and patent applications, authored 86 refereed journal articles and transactions papers, and authored 2 book chapters.  Dr. Wood has managed an average annual ORNL budget of $9-10M related to hydrogen infrastructure issues, polymer electrolyte fuel cells, lithium ion batteries, and roll-to-roll manufacturing science.