Porous materials for battery electrodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021336245-A1
Application number	US-202117236677-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 21, 2021
Priority date	Apr 22, 2020
Publication date	Oct 28, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods of the various embodiments may provide porous materials for electrodes of electrochemical energy storage systems.

First claim

1 . A battery, comprising:
a positive electrode; an electrolyte; and a negative electrode, wherein the negative electrode comprises a porous metal.

2 . The battery of claim 1 , wherein the porous metal was fabricated at least in part using at least one fugitive pore former.

3 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the porous metal comprises iron.

4 . The battery of claim 3 , wherein the fugitive pore former is a reducing agent.

5 . The battery of claim 4 , wherein the reducing agent comprises carbon.

6 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises iron (II) sulfate, iron (II,II) sulfate, mackinawite, marcasite, pyrite, troilite, pyrrhotite, greigite, amorphous iron (II) sulfide, or lead sulfide.

7 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises coal.

8 . The battery claim 1 , wherein the porous metal is produced by reduction in a hearth furnace.

9 . The battery claim 8 , wherein the hearth furnace is a rotary hearth furnace or a linear hearth furnace.

10 . The battery claim 1 , wherein the porous metal is produced by reduction in a rotary kiln.

11 . The battery claim 2 , wherein formation of pores in the porous metal occurs by electrochemical reduction in the battery.

12 . The battery of claim 11 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises silica, sodium silicate, sodium oxide, calcium oxide, or magnesium oxide.

13 . The battery of claim 11 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises a salt of the electrolyte.

14 . The battery of claim 13 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises potassium or sodium hydroxide.

15 . The battery of claim 11 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises ammonium nitrate or potassium sulfate.

16 . The battery claim 2 , wherein the porous metal is formed from a precursor material having a first size and the fugitive pore former particle size is about the same as the first size.

17 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the porous metal has a layer of discharge product on its surface and the fugitive pore former particle size exceeds twice the thickness of the layer of discharge product.

18 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the at least one fugitive pore former comprises at least two different fugitive pore formers.

19 . The battery of claim 18 , wherein the two different fugitive pore formers are different type pore formers and/or different size pore formers.

20 . The battery of claim 1 , further comprising a current collector metallurgically bonded and/or in electrical communication with the negative electrode, the current collector along at least a portion of the negative electrode.

21 . The battery of claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode comprises an air-breathing cathode, a nickel oxyhydroxide electrode, or a manganese dioxide electrode.

22 . The battery of claim 3 , wherein the iron comprises steelmaking dust, mill scale, iron ore, iron mesh, iron wire, iron powder, or any combination thereof.

23 . The battery of claim 2 , wherein the fugitive pore former comprises coke.

24 . The battery of claim 1 , wherein the porous metal was fabricated at least in part using a pore former comprising a metal carbonate.

25 - 28 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Form Energy Inc

Inventors

• Gibson Michael Andrew
• Thompson Annelise Christine
• Woodford William Henry
• Chiang Yet-Ming

Classifications

• H01M2004/021

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

• H01M4/0438

  by electrochemical processing (electroless electrochemical plating C23C18/54) · CPC title

• H01M4/0471

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

• H01M4/049

  Manufacturing of an active layer by chemical means · CPC title

• H01M4/248 Primary

  Iron electrodes · CPC title