Silicon Anodes for Improved EV Battery Performance

A rechargeable lithium battery with improved cycling performance and capacity retention. The battery uses a unique negative electrode active material composition. It combines rod-shaped artificial graphite with a specific diameter and aspect ratio, along with a silicon-carbon composite. This mixture provides a balance between capacity and cycling stability compared to using just the graphite or just the silicon-carbon composite. The rod-shaped graphite improves cycling stability while the silicon-carbon composite provides capacity.

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Method for stabilizing copper-rich silicide phases in a microstructure, such as a silicon anode for lithium-ion batteries, to control phase separation and microstructure formation during annealing. By varying parameters like pulse duration, energy, and substrate preheating/cooling, copper silicide matrices can be formed in the silicon layers with embedded nanoscale silicon regions. This allows high utilization of the silicon for lithium intercalation while maintaining conductivity. The copper silicide matrices can also contain high-temperature, copper-rich phases like Cu7Si and Cu9Si. The nanostructuring can be tuned by cooling rate to modify the morphology and distribution of phases.

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Uniformly modified silicon-based composite material for lithium-ion battery negative electrodes that improves cycling stability and rate performance compared to traditional silicon oxide. The material has a composition of SiCxAyOz, with 0<x<20, 0<y<10, and 0<z<10. The modification involves distributing carbon and A elements like Al or B throughout the bulk of the silicon oxide particles instead of just coating the surface. This bulk phase doping improves electronic conductivity inside the particles to mitigate volume expansion and pulverization during cycling.

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Lithium-ion battery electrodes with improved cycling stability by dispersing inert elements like hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and chlorine into the silicon-based electrode material. This reduces volume expansion during charging and prevents pulverization. The inert elements are atomically dispersed in the silicon structure during fabrication using a homogenous liquid precursor mixture. The silicon and inert elements are simultaneously extracted and incorporated into the solid electrode structure during reaction. This disperses the inert elements throughout the silicon material instead of forming separate phases.

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Solid-state battery with improved anode materials for higher capacity and longer life compared to conventional lithium-ion batteries. The battery uses an anode with layers of tin metal and silicon/silicon-based materials instead of the typical composite of silicon particles. This configuration provides better performance because it reduces capacity fade and resistance rise compared to using silicon or tin alone. The tin layer next to the solid electrolyte prevents volume expansion of the silicon layer during charging, which improves cycling stability. The silicon layer between tin layers further reduces expansion. This layered anode structure enables higher capacity silicon utilization compared to composites.

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Silicon-based negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries that combines high capacity with excellent aqueous processability and long cycle life. The material comprises a porous silicon-carbon composite where silicon is deposited onto the carbon surface in a controlled disproportionation reaction, creating a uniform silicon-carbon interface. This composite exhibits superior aqueous processability compared to conventional silicon-based electrodes, while maintaining excellent capacity and cycle life characteristics. The composite is formed through a controlled etching process that preserves the silicon-carbon interface while incorporating carbon layers for enhanced conductivity. The resulting material delivers high energy density, excellent aqueous processability, and long cycle life, making it suitable for lithium-ion batteries with high capacity and rate capability applications.

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Anode design for lithium-ion batteries that provides high capacity, stability, and manufacturing simplicity compared to conventional silicon anodes. The anode structure has a continuous, porous layer of silicon or germanium on a metal oxide-coated current collector. This silicon-rich layer is deposited using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) at thicknesses of 0.1-10 μm. The silicon-rich layer has low carbon content, avoids nanostructures like nanowires, and has high reflectance. It provides high lithium storage capacity, volume expansion stability, and manufacturing ease compared to complex silicon nanostructures.

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Negative electrode for rechargeable lithium batteries featuring a silicon-carbon composite as a negative active material layer. The electrode combines a crystalline carbon negative active material with a silicon-carbon composite, and is supported by a current collector. This composition provides enhanced thermal stability during charging and discharging compared to conventional materials, resulting in improved battery performance and reduced volume expansion.

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Lithium secondary battery with high energy density and improved cycle life by optimizing the charge/discharge behavior of the battery. The battery uses an overlithiated manganese oxide positive electrode material and a silicon-based negative electrode material. The overlithiated manganese oxide has a composition with >50 mol % Mn and >Li/Me ratio. The silicon negative electrode enables high capacity. The battery also satisfies a specific discharge behavior to balance energy density and cycle life.

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Composite particles for high capacity lithium-ion battery anodes that overcome the volume expansion and cycling issues of silicon anodes. The composite particles have electroactive domains (like silicon) within the internal pore volume of a porous particle framework. The framework prevents volume expansion and fracturing by confining the electroactive domains to smaller volumes. The framework also provides electrical contact to the current collector. The electroactive domains are separated by modifier domains (like passivation layers or pyrolytic carbon) to prevent electrical shorting.

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A negative electrode for lithium-ion batteries that achieves high energy density while preventing volume expansion during charging and discharging. The electrode combines a silicon-based active material with a conductive material like single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and a binder. The silicon-based material, comprising crystalline or amorphous silicon particles with controlled grain size, provides controlled expansion during charging while maintaining structural integrity. The SWCNTs enhance conductivity, while the binder maintains the silicon-based material's integrity. This composition enables high-capacity batteries with improved cycle life and reduced volume expansion issues compared to conventional silicon-based electrodes.

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Negative electrode for rechargeable lithium batteries featuring a silicon-based composite active material. The composite comprises a silicon-based active material, phenoxy resin, and carbon nanotubes in a weight ratio of 1:0.0013 to 1:0.01. The composite is used in a negative electrode active material layer, where it enhances electrical conductivity while maintaining structural integrity. The composite provides improved performance compared to conventional silicon-based materials.

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A negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries that improves both phase stability and charge/discharge efficiency. The material incorporates a calcium-containing inorganic layer on the surface of silicon-based particles, which prevents reaction with water and lithium compounds during slurry formation. The calcium layer also enhances passivation properties. This unique composition enables improved aqueous processability while maintaining high capacity and rate capability. The material can be formulated with a carbon layer on the surface of the silicon particles for enhanced conductivity. The combination of these layers provides a stable negative electrode with enhanced performance characteristics.

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Anode design for lithium-ion batteries with high capacity, improved stability, and ease of manufacture. The anode has a continuous porous lithium storage layer containing at least 40% silicon, germanium, or a combination thereof, deposited on a metal oxide layer over the current collector. This silicon-rich layer provides high lithium storage capacity without the need for complex nanostructured silicon forms. The metal oxide layer protects the silicon from direct contact with the current collector. The anode has simplified composition without nanostructures or binders, and can be formed by PECVD on an existing current collector surface.

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Negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries with improved capacity and cycle life compared to traditional graphite-based materials. The material has a unique structure with a granular core of graphite particles and a surface layer containing dispersed silicon particles. The silicon particles have an average size of 20-200 nm and are dispersed in a matrix phase on the graphite surface. This structure provides high initial discharge capacity, capacity retention, and charge-discharge capacity compared to graphite alone.

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Electrode active material, electrode mixture, and battery with reduced volume change during charging and discharging for improved battery performance. The electrode active material contains silicon with a specific size of five-membered rings in the crystal structure. This size range of 3.752-3.780 Å reduces volume expansion compared to larger or smaller ring sizes. The electrode mixture containing this material, along with conductive additives and binders, can be used in negative or positive electrodes. The battery using this electrode has reduced volume change during cycling versus conventional silicon batteries.

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Negative electrode for lithium-ion batteries that enhances cycle life through gas recovery and uniform charge/discharge behavior. The electrode comprises a silicon-based active material layer on a current collector layer, with a ceramic layer formed on the silicon layer's surface opposite the collector layer. The ceramic layer contains BaTiO3 for gas sensing and a controlled volume expansion mechanism. The ceramic layer thickness is precisely engineered to balance gas recovery with structural integrity. This approach prevents the high-volume gas expansion associated with conventional silicon-based electrodes while maintaining uniform charge/discharge characteristics.

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A lithium secondary battery with improved charge and discharge characteristics, life, and durability. The battery incorporates a carbon-based negative electrode active material with a silicon-based negative electrode active material, where the silicon-based material exhibits superior charge capacity and energy density compared to conventional carbon-based materials. The silicon-based material is strategically aligned in a magnetic field during electrode formation, preserving its structural integrity and maintaining optimal crystal orientation for efficient intercalation and deintercalation processes. This alignment enables enhanced electronic conductivity and charge capacity while minimizing volume expansion during charge/discharge cycles.

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Preparing silicon-containing composite particles for lithium-ion batteries with high silicon loading and cycling performance by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) of porous particles. The process involves continuously mixing porous particles with silicon precursor gas at elevated temperature and pressure to deposit nanoscale silicon domains inside the pore network. Key features include using a continuous stirrer to maximize particle loading, maintaining consistent gas flow rates as silicon deposition progresses to reduce coarse silicon, and controlling pressure to optimize CVI conditions. The composite particles have high silicon content, surface area, and fine silicon distribution for improved battery cycling compared to batch CVI.

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All-conductive battery electrodes for high performance lithium-ion batteries that avoid contact loss between electrode particles and the current collector during cycling. The electrodes have a coating layer with >50% silicon, where the silicon and other materials all have low resistivity <100 Ω-cm. This ensures electrical continuity throughout the volume changes of silicon anodes to prevent separation and capacity loss. The low-resistivity silicon, conductive binder, and metal current collector all provide electrical conductivity. This eliminates the need for separate conductive additives in the electrode coating layer. The all-conductive electrodes have improved cycle life and capacity retention compared to conventional silicon anodes.

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