Battery electrode composition comprising carbon and silicon with specific properties for superior performance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12592380-B2
Application number	US-202217930366-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2022
Priority date	Sep 7, 2021
Publication date	Mar 31, 2026
Grant date	Mar 31, 2026

Abstract

In an aspect, a lithium-ion battery anode composition comprises a porous composite particle comprising carbon (C) and an active material comprising silicon (Si), wherein the carbon is characterized by a domain size (r), as estimated from an atomic pair distribution function G(r) obtained from a synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurement of the porous composite particle, ranging from around 10 Å (1 nm) to around 60 Å (6 nm). In a further aspect, a carbon material for use in making an anode composition for use in a Li-ion battery is characterized by a domain size (r), as estimated from an atomic pair distribution function G(r) obtained from a synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurement of the carbon material, ranging from around 10 Å (1 nm) to around 60 Å (6 nm).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . Porous composite particles, each of the porous composite particles comprising:
carbon (C) atoms and silicon (Si) atoms; and a protective layer at least partially coating the porous composite particle, wherein: a weight ratio of the Si atoms to the C atoms is in a range of about 5:1 to about 1:5; each of the porous composite particles comprises active material; the active material comprises one or more of the following: (i) Si, (ii) Si doped with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), or boron (B), (iii) silicon oxide (SiO x ), (iv) SiO x partially reduced by Li or Mg, (v) silicon nitride (SiN x ) or silicon oxynitride (SiO x N y ) or silicon hydride; the porous composite particles comprise C with a (002) carbon spacing in a range from about 4.40 Å to about 3.45 Å; at least some of the C atoms are in the form of porous carbon that comprises pores that are infiltrated with nanoparticles of the active material; and around 50 wt. % to around 100 wt. % of the active material is confined within the pores.

2 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the (002) carbon spacing is in a range from about 4.40 Å to about 4.00 Å.

3 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the (002) carbon spacing is in a range from about 4.00 Å to about 3.80 Å.

4 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
about 90% to about 100% of the carbon atoms are present in the form of sp 2 -bonded carbon atoms.

5 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein the porous composite particles comprise less than about 2 wt. % of hydrogen (H) atoms.

6 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein the porous composite particles comprise from about 0 wt. % to about 5 wt. % of nitrogen (N) atoms.

7 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein the porous composite particles comprise from about 0 wt. % to about 5 wt. % of oxygen (O) atoms.

8 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein a volume-average size of crystalline grains of the active material is in a range of about 0.5 nm to about 200 nm.

9 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles are characterized by a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area (SSA) in a range of around 1 m 2 /g to around 100 m 2 /g.

10 . The porous composite particles of claim 9 , wherein:
the BET SSA is in a range of around 1 m 2 /g to around 40 m 2 /g.

11 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles exhibit, during annealing in nitrogen (N 2 ) gas for a period of 2 hours at 1050° C., a nitrogen uptake in a range of about 1.5 wt. % to about 25 wt. % of a total weight of the porous composite particles.

12 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles exhibit, during annealing in nitrogen (N 2 ) gas for a period of 2 hours at 850° C., a nitrogen uptake in a range of about 0.5 wt. % to about 10 wt. % of a total weight of the porous composite particles.

13 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
The porous composite particles form, during annealing in argon (Ar) gas for a period of 2 hours or more in a temperature range of 750° C. to 950° C., silicon carbide (SiC) at a weight fraction in a range of 1 wt. % to 100 wt. %.

14 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles, as a material for an anode of a Li-ion battery, exhibits a decrease in specific capacity in a range of about 2% to about 25% upon annealing in nitrogen (N 2 ) gas for a period of 2 hours at 750° C.

15 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles exhibit a true density in a range of around 0.9 g/cm 3 to around 2.2 g/cm 3 , as measured by N 2 pycnometry.

16 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles are characterized by a Raman spectrum exhibiting a carbon D band and a carbon G band; and an I D /I G ratio, defined as an intensity of the carbon D band (I D ) divided by an intensity of the carbon G band (I G ), is in a range of about 0.7 to about 2.7.

17 . The porous composite particles of claim 16 , wherein:
the I D /I G ratio is in a range of about 0.9 to about 2.1.

18 . The porous composite particles of claim 16 , wherein:
the Raman spectrum is measured at a laser wavelength of about 532 nm.

19 . The porous composite particles of claim 16 , wherein:
the I D and the I G are estimated by (i) performing a linear background subtraction on the Raman spectrum in a spectral wavenumber range of about 1000 cm −1 to about 2000 cm −1 , and (ii) curve-fitting two Gaussian peaks to the linear background-subtracted Raman spectrum in the spectral wavenumber range.

20 . The porous composite particles of claim 1 , wherein:
the porous composite particles are characterized by a Raman spectrum exhibiting a carbon D band and a carbon G band; and a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the carbon G band is in a range about 10 cm −1 to about 150 cm −1 .

21 . The porous composite particles of claim 20 , wherein:
the FWHM is in a range about 50 cm −1 to about 100 cm −1 .

22 . The porous composite particles of claim 20 , wherein:
the Raman spectrum is measured at a laser wavelength of about 532 nm.

23 . The porous composite particles of claim 20 , wherein:
the FWHM is estimated by (i) performing a linear background subtraction on the Raman spectrum in a spectral wavenumber range of about 1000 cm −1 to about 2000 cm −1 , and (ii) curve-fitting two Gaussian peaks to the linear background-subtracted Raman spectrum in the spectral wavenumber range.

24 . A Li-ion battery comprising:
an anode comprising the porous composite particles of claim 1 ; a cathode; and an electrolyte ionically coupling the anode and the cathode.

25 . The Li-ion battery of claim 24 , wherein:
the anode comprises graphite mixed with the porous composite particles.

26 . The Li-ion battery of claim 25 , wherein:
a weight fraction of the porous composite particles is in a range of about 1 wt. % to about 99 wt. %; and the weight fraction is defined as a mass of the porous composite particles divided by a sum of the mass of the porous composite particles and a mass of the graphite.

27 . The Li-ion battery of claim 24 , wherein:
an areal capacity of the anode is in a range from about 2 mAh/cm 2 to about 8 mAh/cm 2 .

28 . The Li-ion battery of claim 24 , wherein:
a capacity of the Li-ion battery is in a range of about 0.2 Ah to about 400 Ah.

Assignees

• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc

Inventors

• Yushin Gleb
• Clark Matthew
• Kajdos Adam
• Milakovich Timothy
• Sivaram Saujan
• Lulevich Valentin

Classifications

• H01M2004/027

  Negative electrodes · CPC title

• H01M2004/021

  Physical characteristics, e.g. porosity, surface area · CPC title

• H01M10/0525

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

• H01M4/625

  Carbon or graphite · CPC title

• H01M4/386

  Silicon or alloys based on silicon · CPC title