Scalable Dry Printing Manufacturing to Enable Long-Life and High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries

Slurry casting method dominates the electrode manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. The entire procedure is similar to the newspaper printing that includes premixing of cast materials into solvents homogeneously, and continuously transferring and drying the slurry mixture onto the current collector. As a market approaching US $80 billion by 2024, the optimization of manufacture process is crucial and attractive. However, the organic solvent remains irreplaceable in the wet method for making slurries, even though it is capital-intensive and toxic. Here, an advanced powder printing technique is demonstrated that is completely solvent-free and dry. Through removing the solvent and related procedures, this method is anticipated to statistically save 20% of the cost at a remarkably shortened production cycle (from hours to minutes). The dry printed electrodes outperform commercial slurry cast ones in 650 cycles (80% capacity retention in 500 cycles), and thick electrodes are successfully fabricated to increase the energy density. Furthermore, microscopy techniques are utilized to characterize the difference of electrode microstructure between dry and wet methods, and distinguish dry printing's advantages on controlling the microstructure. In summary, this study proves a practical fabrication method for lithium-ion electrodes with lowered cost and favorable performance, and allows more advanced electrode designs potentially.