Swelling Mitigation in Silicon Anode EV Batteries

Secondary batteries with electrode assemblies that expand and contract less during charging and discharging to improve reliability and cycle life. The electrode assemblies contain a population of spacer structures within the electrode layers. The spacer structures prevent excessive expansion and contraction of the active material during cycling. The spacer population occupies a specific volume range within the electrode layer, and each subvolume of the electrode layer contains at least 25% of the total volume. This configuration allows the spacer structures to be distributed throughout the electrode to accommodate expansion and contraction without impacting overall electrode volume. The spacer structures can be made of materials like polymers, active material, current collectors, separators, etc.

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Silicon anode electrode for all-solid-state batteries that enhances power density and energy density by addressing the challenges of silicon-based anode materials. The electrode comprises silicon columns with strategically created empty spaces, which are achieved through laser patterning after silicon deposition. These spaces enable controlled silicon expansion during charging, mitigate stress-induced cracking, and facilitate efficient Li-ion conduction between the silicon columns and solid electrolyte. The electrode architecture, combined with a solid electrolyte layer, enables improved performance in all-solid-state batteries compared to conventional graphite-based anode materials.

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Negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries that can withstand high volume expansion during cycling without fracturing, enabling long cycle life. The negative electrode material is a core of silicon, silicon alloys, or tin alloys coated with a multilayer film. The outer layer is a porous elastomeric siloxane coating with dispersed conductive particles. This coating expands and contracts reversibly to accommodate the core volume changes, preventing fracturing.

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Lithium ion battery with improved performance by using prelithiated silicon-based negative electrodes. The battery has a negative electrode containing a lithium silicide preloaded with lithium. This prelithiation reduces volume changes during charge/discharge compared to regular silicon electrodes. The battery also has a positive electrode and operates at lower voltages. The negative electrode has more lithium than the positive electrode (N/P ratio > 1) to balance capacity. This allows lower voltage operation below 5V. The reduced voltage operation mitigates issues like fatigue cracking and burning of silicon electrodes.

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A secondary battery design that prevents electrode pulverization by maintaining negative electrode active material within a conductive network structure. The battery incorporates a conductive current collector, a positive electrode current collector, an electrolyte layer, and a positive electrode partitioned by the current collector and electrolyte layer. The negative electrode active material is held within the conductive network structure while maintaining electrical continuity between the current collector and electrolyte layer. This design enables the negative electrode active material to be safely maintained in the conductive environment during charging and discharging, thereby preventing pulverization and maintaining battery performance.

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An electrode pad for secondary batteries that improves electrolyte retention, reduces expansion, and decreases manufacturing costs. The pad comprises a core with a high internal resistance (specifically, 333.534.24849.634.134.434.7 ohms) and a conductive layer that covers the core. The conductive layer is made of a conductive polymer that has been formulated to maintain electrolyte retention while minimizing the pad's expansion and manufacturing complexity. The conductive polymer is specifically designed to prevent electrolyte leakage while maintaining the pad's structural integrity.

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Silicon anode material for lithium-ion batteries that achieves high energy density through controlled volume expansion during lithium insertion/extraction. The material comprises carbon-encased silicon clusters with a carbon shell volume greater than the silicon cluster volume, where the silicon clusters contain nanoparticles encapsulated within the carbon shell. The clusters are formed through a process of precursor cluster synthesis, carbon coating, and subsequent reduction to form the silicon anode. The resulting material exhibits superior lithium-ion storage capacity compared to conventional silicon-based anodes, particularly in high-energy density applications.

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A novel negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries that enhances performance while maintaining safety. The material, prepared through a specific processing sequence involving silicon oxide precursor, multi-walled carbon nanotubes, and polyvinylpyrrolidone, exhibits superior expansion properties compared to conventional silicon oxide-based materials. The novel material's unique combination of oxide and carbon nanotube layers enables enhanced expansion rates while maintaining structural integrity, leading to improved battery performance and cycle life.

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A method for preparing high-efficiency lithium-ion battery negative electrode materials through a novel approach that significantly reduces lithium consumption and manufacturing costs. The method involves a novel silicon-carbon composite material preparation process where silicon oxide is combined with sodium hydroxide and anhydrous ethanol in a 1:1 ratio. This unique composition enables the formation of a high-performance negative electrode material with improved lithium utilization efficiency and reduced material costs.

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A lithium-ion battery negative electrode structure that enables high-capacity batteries with improved cycle life through structural design. The structure incorporates a grid-like architecture with specially engineered surface features that create micro-voids and interstitial spaces, allowing particles to expand and contract without excessive volume changes. This design enables the use of materials like silicon, which typically exhibit significant volume expansion during charge/discharge cycles, while maintaining structural integrity and preventing particle debonding. The grid-like pattern provides optimal space for these micro-voids, enabling the battery to operate at high capacities while maintaining reliable electrical connections.

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Improving the life cycle of lithium-ion batteries containing lithium-silicon negative electrodes by operating the batteries within specific voltage potential windows. The voltage potential windows are narrower than the full potential range of the battery. This limits the amount of silicon-based active material in the negative electrode that can be utilized during charging/discharging. The reduced utilization of silicon helps prevent mechanical degradation and prolongs the life cycle of the battery.

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Lithium-ion battery with improved capacity retention through controlled lithiation of silicon anode material. The battery comprises an anode comprising silicon particles, a cathode, a separator, and an electrolyte. The anode material is partially lithiated in a fully charged state, where the maximum lithium uptake capacity of the silicon particles is achieved without significant volume expansion. This controlled lithiation approach prevents the formation of a passivating protective layer and maintains the reversible capacity of the battery during subsequent charge-discharge cycles.

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A rechargeable lithium-ion battery with enhanced energy density through nanostructured silicon anodes. The battery features a continuous nanostructured anode layer comprising silicon columns with up to 80% nano-crystalline content, which enables improved capacity retention and volumetric efficiency compared to conventional graphite anodes. The nanostructured silicon columns are arranged in a perpendicular interface with the electrolyte layer, maintaining their structural integrity during lithium intercalation. The anode layer is fabricated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, allowing precise control over column dimensions and interfaces.

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Lithium-silicon batteries with improved cycle life for electric vehicles and other applications. The battery uses a lithium-silicon negative electrode with at least 10% of the capacity attributed to the silicon. This reduces capacity fade compared to pure silicon electrodes due to silicon expansion/contraction. The silicon-based active material is incorporated into a thin film or thicker porous electrode structure. The battery also uses electrolyte additives and electrode treatments to further enhance cycle life. The improved silicon electrode and additives allow higher capacity, lower capacity fade, and longer cycle life compared to conventional lithium-silicon batteries.

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A silicon-based negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries that enhances cycle life and capacity retention through controlled lithium release. The material comprises silicon particles with a controlled silicon-to-lithium ratio, where the ratio is between 0.5 and 1.6. The material exhibits improved lithium release characteristics during charging and discharging, particularly when compared to conventional silicon-based materials. The material's unique composition enables precise control over lithium release, resulting in enhanced cycle life and capacity retention.

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Negative electrode for lithium-ion batteries with integrated current collector and active material layer design. The electrode features a current collector with concave and convex shapes that match the active material layer's unevenness, creating a self-sustaining structure. The active material layer has both concave and convex regions that overlap with the collector's shapes, while the second concavity and convexity of the active material layer overlaps with the collector's shapes. This design enables the negative electrode to absorb expansion and swelling during charging and discharging, maintaining structural integrity and preventing electrode delamination.

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Silicon-based anode material for lithium-ion batteries that combines high theoretical capacity with improved structural integrity and mechanical strength. The material comprises silicon nanoparticles coated with carbon nanofibers, where the carbon coating layer provides enhanced electron transport properties and protects against electrolyte decomposition. The silicon nanoparticles serve as the anode material, with the carbon nanofibers acting as a secondary protective layer. This composite structure enables efficient charge/discharge cycles while maintaining the anode's mechanical integrity.

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Multilayer silicon nanowire structures for lithium battery anodes that address the issue of silicon swelling and cracking during cycling. The anode has a substrate, nanowire template rooted to it, a lower density silicon layer coating the nanowires, and a higher density silicon layer on top. The lower density silicon expands as it absorbs lithium, preventing nanowire separation. The higher density top layer reduces solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer formation.

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Lithium cobaltate cathode material and its preparation method for lithium-ion batteries that significantly improves charging and discharging efficiency. The material comprises a lithium cobaltate cathode with a nanometer-sized silicon particle matrix, where the silicon particles are uniformly distributed across the cathode material. The silicon particles are synthesized through a process that transforms silicon dioxide into amorphous carbon coatings on the silicon surface, creating a composite structure with enhanced conductivity. This nanoscale silicon matrix structure enables efficient lithium-ion intercalation and discharge, leading to improved battery performance.

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