Lithium ion batteries comprising nanofibers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021399384-A1
Application number	US-202117360659-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 28, 2021
Priority date	Mar 2, 2012
Publication date	Dec 23, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Lithium ion batteries, electrodes, nanofibers, and methods for producing same are disclosed herein. Provided herein are batteries having (a) increased energy density; (b) decreased pulverization (structural disruption due to volume expansion during lithiation/de-lithiation processes); and/or (c) increased lifetime. In some embodiments described herein, using high throughput, water-based electrospinning process produces nanofibers of high energy capacity materials (e.g., ceramic) with nanostructures such as discrete crystal domains, mesopores, hollow cores, and the like; and such nanofibers providing reduced pulverization and increased charging rates when they are used in anodic or cathodic materials.

First claim

1 . A polymer nanocomposite nanofiber produced by coaxially gas assisted electrospinning, comprising:
(i) a plurality of nanostructures comprising a clay, a ceramic, a ceramic precursor, or any combination thereof; and (ii) a polymer portion comprising one or more polymers; wherein the polymer portion is a continuous polymer matrix; wherein the plurality of nanostructures comprises non-aggregated ceramic and/or clay nanostructures embedded within the polymer matrix; and wherein the polymer nanocomposite nanofiber comprises 0.5 to 50 wt % ceramic and/or clay.

2 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the polymer matrix comprises PE, UHMWPE, PP, PVA, PAN, PEO, PVP, PVDF, PMMA, PI, nylon, aramid, or a combination thereof.

3 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the polymer nanocomposite nanofiber comprises 1-15 wt % clay, 1-15 wt % ceramic, or 1-15 wt % of ceramic and clay combined.

4 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructures comprises ceramic, wherein the ceramic is generated by one or more ceramic precursors.

5 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructures comprise clay, which clay is bentonite, aluminum phyllosilicate, montmorillonite, kaolinite, illite, vermiculite, smectite, chlorite, silicate clay, sesquioxide clay, allophane, imogolite, fluorohectorate, laponite, bentonite, beidellite, hectorite, saponite, nontronite, sauconite, ledikite, magadiite, kenyaite, stevensite, or combinations thereof.

6 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the nanostructures are dispersed in a substantially uniform manner along the length of the nanofiber.

7 . The polymer nanocomposite nanofiber of claim 1 , wherein the polymer nanocomposite nanofiber is used in a battery separator, and/or an electrode.

8 . A battery comprising:
an anode; a cathode; and a separator; wherein the anode, the cathode, or the separator comprise one or more nanocomposite nanofibers produced by coaxially gas assisted electrospinning, the one or more nanocomposite nanofibers comprising a continuous matrix embedded with non-aggregated nanostructures or nanostructures dispersed in a substantially uniform manner, and wherein the one or more nanocomposite nanofibers comprise 0.5 to 50 wt % non-aggregated nanostructures, the remaining part comprising the continuous matrix.

9 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the continuous matrix comprises a first material selected from polymer, carbon, metal, metal alloy, metal oxide, lithium material, silicon, silicon alloy, or any combination thereof.

10 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the non-aggregated nanostructures comprise a second material selected from ceramic, clay, metal, metal alloy, metal oxide, lithium material, silicon, silicon alloy, or any combination thereof.

11 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the continuous matrix or non-aggregated nanostructures comprises lithium material; and
wherein the lithium material is lithium metal oxide or has a formula of:
Li a M b X c ,
wherein M comprises one or more metal element selected from Fe, Ni, Co, Mn, V, Ti, Zr, Ru, Re, Pt, Bi, Pb, Cu, Al, Li, or a combination thereof; X comprises one or more non-metals selected from C, N, O, P, S, SO 4 , PO 4 , Se, halide, F, CF, SO 2 , SO 2 Cl 2 , I, Br, SiO 4 , BO 3 , or a combination thereof; and a is in a range of 1-5, b is in a range of 0-2, and c is in a range of 0-10.

12 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the nanofiber further comprising a hollow core surrounded by a continuous tube of matrix material.

13 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the nanostructures are dispersed in a substantially uniform manner along the length of the nanofiber.

14 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the nanofiber is porous and comprises one or more of:
(a) a plurality of pores with an average diameter of at least 1 nm; (b) a specific surface area of at least 100 m 2 /g; (c) a porosity of at least 20%; (d) a plurality of pores have a substantially uniform shape, substantially uniform size and/or are distributed substantially uniformly across the nanofiber; and wherein the porous nanofiber is produced by any one of: (e) heating to carbonize or selectively remove a polymer and/or polymer phase; or (f) chemically treating to remove carbon.

15 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the non-aggregated nanostructures comprise at least one high energy capacity material selected from Si, Sn, Ge, Al, Co, Cu, Fe, an oxide thereof, a carbide thereof, an alloy thereof, or a combination thereof; and wherein the high energy capacity material is capable of intercalating and deintercalating lithium ions.

16 . The battery of claim 15 , wherein the domains of the high energy material comprise substantially uniform shapes and/or substantially uniform size.

17 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the continuous matrix comprises a polymer or a carbon material.

18 . The battery of claim 8 , wherein the non-aggregated nanostructures comprises ceramic, clay, lithium material, or a combination thereof.

Assignees

• Univ Cornell

Inventors

• Joo Yong Lak
• Hansen Nathaniel S
• Cho Daehwan
• Kim Kyoung Woo

Classifications

• H01M50/42

  Acrylic resins · CPC title

• H01M50/491

  Porosity · CPC title

• H01M50/489

  Separators, membranes, diaphragms or spacing elements inside the cells, characterised by their physical properties, e.g. swelling degree, hydrophilicity or shut down properties · CPC title

• H01M50/414

  Synthetic resins, e.g. thermoplastics or thermosetting resins · CPC title

• D01F9/20

  from polyaddition, polycondensation or polymerisation products (D01F9/145, D01F9/16, D01F9/18 take precedence) · CPC title