Glass solid electrolyte layer, methods of making glass solid electrolyte layer and electrodes and battery cells thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12034116-B2
Application number	US-202117303706-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 4, 2021
Priority date	Aug 4, 2020
Publication date	Jul 9, 2024
Grant date	Jul 9, 2024

Abstract

Battery component structures and manufacturing methods for solid-state battery cells include a unitary Li ion conducting sulfide glass solid electrolyte structure that serves as the basic building block around which a solid-state battery cell can be fabricated. The unitary glass structure approach can leverage precision controlled high throughput processes from the semiconductor industry that have been inventively modified as disclosed herein for processing a sulfide glass solid electrolyte substrate into a unitary Li ion conducting glass structure, for example, by using etching and lithographic photoresist formulations and methods. The glass substrate may be precision engineered to effectuate a dense glass portion and a porous glass portion that can be characterized as sublayers having predetermined thicknesses. The porous glass sublayer includes a plurality of discrete substantially vertical closed-end holes or trenches that are precision engineered into one or both major substrate surfaces using microfabrication processes.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A unitary Li ion conducting glass structure comprising: a substantially flat Li ion conducting sulfide glass substrate having first and second major opposing surfaces, the glass substrate having a first porous glass portion that is characterizable as a first porous sublayer with a certain thickness and a dense glass portion that is characterizable as a dense glass sublayer with a certain thickness, wherein the first porous sublayer comprises a first plurality of discrete closed-end substantially vertical holes and/or trenches that extend into the substrate from the substrate first major surface to a predetermined depth, the first porous sublayer defining a hole and/or trench pattern on the first major surface; and further wherein the unitary Li ion conducting glass structure is a single continuous material lacking layer boundaries.

2. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the glass substrate is characterizable as having an asymmetric architecture composed of the dense glass sublayer and the first porous glass sublayer, wherein the dense glass sublayer defines the substrate second major surface and extends therefrom into the substrate.

3. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 further comprising a second porous portion that is characterizable as a second porous sublayer comprising a second plurality of discrete closed-end and substantially vertical holes that extend into the substrate from a substrate second major surface to a predetermined depth, the second porous sublayer defining a hole pattern on the second major surface; and wherein the glass substrate is characterizable as having a sandwich architecture composed of the dense glass sublayer sandwiched between the first and second porous glass sublayers.

4. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 3 , wherein the first surface hole pattern and second surface hole pattern of the solid electrolyte glass substrate are different.

5. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the number density of holes in the first or second porous sublayer is >100 per mm 2 .

6. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the holes are substantially circular and effectuate a regular hole pattern on their respective substrate surface.

7. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the holes are anisotropic with an aspect ratio >10:1.

8. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the holes have substantially vertical sidewalls.

9. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the holes have a concave shaped sidewall.

10. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the hole pattern is created by lithography and etching.

11. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the thickness of the dense glass sublayer is about 1-to-50 um.

12. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the thickness of the first porous sublayer is about 5 to 100 um.

13. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the holes are substantially circular shaped and have a diameter value that is in a selected from the group consisting of >5 to 10 um, >1 to 5 um, and >100 nm to 1 um.

14. The unitary Li ion conducting glass structure of claim 1 wherein the Li ion conducting sulfide glass substrate comprising lithium, sulfur, and one or more of boron, germanium, phosphorus and silicon.

Assignees

• Polyplus Battery Co Inc

Inventors

• Visco Steven J
• Nimon Vitaliy
• Loginova Valentina
• Nimon Yevgeniy S
• Katz Bruce D

Classifications

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• C03C15/00

  Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by etching (etching or surface-brightening compositions, in general C09K13/00) · CPC title

• H01M2300/0068

  inorganic · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/1391

  of electrodes based on mixed oxides or hydroxides, or on mixtures of oxides or hydroxides, e.g. LiCoOx · CPC title