Electrodes, lithium-ion batteries, and methods of making and using same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022013767-A1
Application number	US-202117484451-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 24, 2021
Priority date	Sep 29, 2009
Publication date	Jan 13, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Described herein are improved composite anodes and lithium-ion batteries made therefrom. Further described are methods of making and using the improved anodes and batteries. In general, the anodes include a porous composite having a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites. At least one of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites is formed from a dendritic particle, which is a three-dimensional, randomly-ordered assembly of nanoparticles of an electrically conducting material and a plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof disposed on a surface of the dendritic particle. At least one nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of its dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of manufacture, comprising:
producing a composite Si—C particle comprising one or more internal Si nanoparticles, wherein the one or more internal Si nanoparticles are deposited from a material comprising Si and H.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the producing comprises:
exposing a carbon-comprising particle to the material comprising Si and H; and depositing the one or more internal Si nanoparticles onto an interior surface of one or more internal pores of the carbon-comprising particle.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the depositing further deposits at least one Si nanoparticle onto an external surface of the carbon-comprising particle.

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the carbon-comprising particle is a carbon-black particle.

5 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
prior to the exposing, annealing the carbon-comprising particle at a temperature in excess of around 2000° C.

6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the carbon-comprising particle is electrically conductive.

7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the exposing exposes the material to the carbon-comprising particle at around 1 torr at around 500° C. for around 1 hour.

8 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more internal Si nanoparticles are grown on the interior surface of the one or more internal pores of the carbon-comprising particle from the Si of the material.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises silane.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises chlorosilane.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the depositing deposits the one or more internal Si nanoparticles via chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises a silane gas that is combined with one or more other materials.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the one or more other materials comprise ammonia, diborane, or phosphine.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing a carbon-comprising coating on the composite Si—C particle.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein an average thickness of the carbon comprising coating is in the range of about 1 nm to about 20 nm.

16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the composite Si—C particle further comprises one or more surface pores.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more internal pores include at least one internal pore with a size between about 30 nm and about 100 nm.

18 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
casting a slurry that comprises the composite Si—C particle to produce an anode electrode.

19 . The composite Si—C particle produced in accordance with the method of claim 1 .

20 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein the one or more Si nanoparticles have an average diameter between 10 to 30 nm.

21 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein the composite Si—C particle exhibits a spherical shape.

22 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein the composite Si—C particle is porous.

23 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein a particle size of the composite Si—C particle is between 15 to 30 μm.

24 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein the composite Si—C particle is substantially spherical.

25 . The composite Si—C particle of claim 19 , wherein the composite Si—C particle comprises:
an electrically-interconnected matrix having a three-dimensional, randomly-ordered structure forming internal pores within the matrix,
wherein the one or more internal Si nanoparticles comprise a plurality of Si nanoparticles disposed within the internal pores of the matrix, the plurality of Si nanoparticles comprising Si or an Si mixture; and
a coating disposed on at least a portion of an outer surface of the composite particle,
wherein the internal pores define a pore volume within the composite particle that is different from a volume occupied by the plurality of Si nanoparticles and
wherein the coating is arranged to inhibit access of electrolyte into the pore volume defined by the internal pores.

Assignees

• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc

Inventors

• Yushin Gleb
• Magazynskyy Oleksandr
• Dixon Patrick
• Hertzberg Benjamin

Classifications

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/1395

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

• H01M4/137

  Electrodes based on electro-active polymers · CPC title

• H01M4/366 Primary

  as layered products · CPC title

• H01M4/133

  Electrodes based on carbonaceous material, e.g. graphite-intercalation compounds or CFx · CPC title