Prelithiation of free-standing silicon dominant anode batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12051806-B2
Application number	US-202117367803-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2021
Priority date	Jul 6, 2021
Publication date	Jul 30, 2024
Grant date	Jul 30, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods for batteries comprising a cathode, an electrolyte, and an anode, where prelithiation reagents are utilized to treat one or more of the anode and cathode. In one embodiment, the prelithiation reagent is a Li-organic complex solution comprising naphthalene and metallic lithium dissolved in an inhibitor-free THF.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of forming a battery, the method comprising:
forming a battery comprising a cathode, an electrolyte, and an anode;
wherein a prelithiation agent is contained in said electrolyte; and
wherein the prelithiation agent is a lithium complex solution which is directly added to the electrolyte and prelithiation occurs during full cell formation cycle; and
wherein the prelithiation agent comprises
lithium 4,4′-dimethylbiphenyl, lithium 3,3′,4,4′-tetramethylbiphenyl or lithium 2-methylbiphenyl, formed from a solution comprising 4,4′-dimethylbiphenyl, 3,3′,4,4′-tetramethylbiphenyl or 2-methylbiphenyl and metallic lithium dissolved in inhibitor-free DME; wherein the active material being prelithiated is substantially free of oxygen where the oxygen present is less than 2000 ppm and the only oxygen present is the native oxide layer; and
wherein said anode comprises 80-95% silicon with the remainder including carbon, pyrolytic carbon, and/or conductive additives; and
wherein said lithium complex solution is mixed with the electrolyte in volume ratios ranging from 20 to 40%.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said inhibitor-free DME has an inhibitor level of <0.1%.

Assignees

• Enevate Corp

Inventors

• Ansari Younes
• Ji Liwen
• Anderson Heidi
• Park Benjamin
• Giordani Vincent

Classifications

• H01M4/0471

  involving thermal treatment, e.g. firing, sintering, backing particulate active material, thermal decomposition, pyrolysis · CPC title

• H01M4/0404

  by coating on electrode collectors · CPC title

• H01M4/134

  Electrodes based on metals, Si or alloys · CPC title

• H01M4/1395 Primary

  of electrodes based on metals, Si or alloys · CPC title

• H01M4/661

  Metal or alloys, e.g. alloy coatings (H01M4/669 take precedence) · CPC title