Electrodes, lithium-ion batteries, and methods of making and using same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11984584-B2
Application number	US-202117484451-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2021
Priority date	Sep 29, 2009
Publication date	May 14, 2024
Grant date	May 14, 2024

Abstract

Described herein are improved composite anodes and lithium-ion batteries made therefrom. Further described are methods of making and using the improved anodes and batteries. In general, the anodes include a porous composite having a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites. At least one of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites is formed from a dendritic particle, which is a three-dimensional, randomly-ordered assembly of nanoparticles of an electrically conducting material and a plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof disposed on a surface of the dendritic particle. At least one nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of its dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A Li-ion battery anode composition, comprising:
a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein each of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites is porous and comprises:
a total pore volume comprising one or more micropores, one or more mesopores and one or more macropores, as determined by one or more nitrogen sorption measurements;
electrically conductive amorphous or graphitic carbon; and
a plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof disposed on a surface of the electrically conductive amorphous or graphitic carbon; and
wherein each nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of the electrically conductive amorphous or graphitic carbon in electrical communication with at least a portion of an electrically conductive amorphous or graphitic carbon of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites,
wherein Si comprises from 15 wt % to 90 wt % of each of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, and wherein a D90 of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites is below 40 micron.

2. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites exhibits a powder tap density from 0.22 g/cm 3 to 1.3 g/cm 3 .

3. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles exhibits a spherical or a spheroidal shape.

4. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles exhibits a size from 5 nm to 200 nm.

5. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles is doped with one or more Group III or one or more Group V elements.

6. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 5 , wherein an atomic fraction of all doping atoms in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites exceeds 0.3% of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles.

7. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles comprises 0.3% or more of one or more of the following alloying elements: Ge, Sn, Pb, Mg, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ag, Cd, Ba, Hf, Ta, and W.

8. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles is in direct contact with carbon.

9. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 8 , wherein the at least one discrete non-porous nanoparticle is deposited onto a surface of the carbon.

10. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 8 , wherein the at least one non-porous nanoparticle is coated with a layer of the carbon.

11. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites exhibits Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (SSA) of less than 33 m 2 /g.

12. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein the one or more micropores exhibit a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (SSA) that is less than 20% of a BET SSA of the total pore volume.

13. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein the one or more micropores comprise less than 20 vol. % of the total pore volume.

14. The Li-ion battery anode composition of claim 1 , wherein pores with a size that is less than 20 nm exhibit a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (SSA) that is at least 75% of a BET SSA of the total pore volume.

Assignees

• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc
• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Yushin Gleb
• Magazynskyy Oleksandr
• Dixon Patrick
• Hertzberg Benjamin

Classifications

• H01M4/366 Primary

  as layered products · CPC title

• H01M4/133

  Electrodes based on carbonaceous material, e.g. graphite-intercalation compounds or CFx · CPC title

• H01M4/137

  Electrodes based on electro-active polymers · CPC title

• H01M4/38

  of elements or alloys · CPC title

• H01M4/587

  for inserting or intercalating light metals · CPC title