Battery separator with dielectric coating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10411238-B2
Application number	US-201615349477-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2016
Priority date	Jan 9, 2015
Publication date	Sep 10, 2019
Grant date	Sep 10, 2019

Abstract

Implementations of the present disclosure generally relate to separators, high performance electrochemical devices, such as, batteries and capacitors, including the aforementioned separators, and methods for fabricating the same. In one implementation, a separator for a battery is provided. The separator comprises a substrate capable of conducting ions and at least one dielectric layer capable of conducting ions. The at least one dielectric layer at least partially covers the substrate and has a thickness of 1 nanometer to 2,000 nanometers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of forming a separator for a battery, comprising:
exposing a material to be deposited on a microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate positioned in a processing region to an evaporation process to form evaporated material;
flowing a reactive gas into the processing region; and
reacting the reactive gas and the evaporated material to deposit a porous dielectric layer on at least a portion of the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate, wherein the porous dielectric layer comprises:
a plurality of dielectric columnar projections; and
a nanoporous structure formed between the dielectric columnar projections.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of: aluminum (Al), zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf), niobium (Nb), tantalum (Ta), titanium (Ti), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), silicon (Si), boron (B), silver (Ag), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), indium (In), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), nickel (Ni), tin (Sn), ytterbium (Yb), lithium (Li), calcium (Ca) or combinations thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactive gas is an oxygen-containing gas selected from the group consisting of: oxygen (O 2 ), ozone (O 3 ), oxygen radicals (O*), ionized oxygen atoms, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitric oxide (NO x ), water vapor, or combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the porous dielectric layer is aluminum oxide.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the evaporation process is a thermal evaporation process or an electron beam evaporation process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate is exposed to a surface modification treatment process to enhance nucleation/growth conditions of the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the surface modification treatment process comprises:
supplying a treatment gas mixture into the processing region; and
forming a plasma from the treatment gas mixture to plasma treat at least a portion of the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate, wherein the treatment gas mixture comprises an oxygen-containing gas, an inert gas, or combinations thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
exposing the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate to a cooling process prior to exposing the material to the evaporation process.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cooling process cools the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate to a temperature between −20 degrees Celsius and 22 degrees Celsius.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the porous dielectric layer comprises a material selected from porous boron nitride, aluminum oxide, porous-ZrO 2 , porous-SiO 2 , porous-MgO, porous-TiO 2 , porous-Ta 2 O 5 , porous-Nb 2 O 5 , porous-LiAlO 2 , porous-BaTiO 3 , ion-conducting garnet, ion-conducting perovskites, ion-conducting anti-perovskites, porous glass dielectric, or combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the porous dielectric layer has a thickness in a range of 1 nanometer to 2,000 nanometers.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the thickness is in a range of 10 nanometers to 600 nanometers.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the thickness is in a range of 50 nanometers to 200 nanometers.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate has a thickness in a range of 5 microns to 50 microns.

15. A method of forming a separator for a battery, comprising:
exposing a material comprising aluminum to be deposited on a microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate positioned in a processing region to an evaporation process to form evaporated aluminum;
flowing an oxygen-containing gas into the processing region; and
reacting the oxygen-containing gas and the evaporated aluminum to deposit a porous aluminum oxide layer on at least a portion of the microporous ion-conducting polymeric substrate, wherein the porous aluminum oxide layer comprises:
a plurality of columnar projections comprising aluminum oxide; and
a nanoporous structure comprising aluminum oxide formed between the plurality of columnar projections.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the oxygen-containing gas is selected from oxygen (O 2 ), ozone (O 3 ), oxygen radicals, or combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the processing region is maintained at a process pressure of 1×10 −3 mbar or below.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the porous aluminum oxide layer has a thickness of 1 nanometer to 2,000 nanometers.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the columnar projections have an average diameter from about 10 to about 500 nanometers and the nanoporous structure has an average pore diameter from about 1 nanometer to about 10 nanometers.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the evaporation process is a thermal evaporation process or an electron beam evaporation process.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Herle Subramanya P

Classifications

• H01M4/382 Primary

  Lithium (H01M4/405 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M50/497

  Ionic conductivity · CPC title

• H01M50/451

  comprising layers of only organic material and layers containing inorganic material · CPC title

• H01M50/42

  Acrylic resins · CPC title

• H01M50/417

  Polyolefins · CPC title