Glass solid electrolyte layer, methods of making glass solid electrolyte layer and electrodes and battery cells thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024347763-A1
Application number	US-202418671767-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 22, 2024
Priority date	Aug 4, 2020
Publication date	Oct 17, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Battery component structures and manufacturing methods for solid-state battery cells include a unitary Li ion conducting sulfide glass solid electrolyte structure that serves as the basic building block around which a solid-state battery cell can be fabricated. The unitary glass structure approach can leverage precision controlled high throughput processes from the semiconductor industry that have been inventively modified as disclosed herein for processing a sulfide glass solid electrolyte substrate into a unitary Li ion conducting glass structure, for example, by using etching and lithographic photoresist formulations and methods. The glass substrate may be precision engineered to effectuate a dense glass portion and a porous glass portion that can be characterized as sublayers having predetermined thicknesses. The porous glass sublayer includes a plurality of discrete substantially vertical closed-end holes or trenches that are precision engineered into one or both major substrate surfaces using microfabrication processes.

First claim

1 - 14 . (canceled)

15 . A method of making a unitary Li ion conducting glass structure, the method comprising:
i) providing a substantially dense and flat Li ion conducting sulfide glass substrate, the substrate having first and second opposing major surfaces; ii) etching a hole pattern into one or both major surfaces to produce a plurality of discrete spaced-apart closed end holes and/or trenches, wherein the etching involves contacting the substrate surface with an etching media.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the etching step involves exposing the first substrate surface to a liquid etching solution comprising water as the etchant and a carrier solvent that is inert in direct contact with the glass substrate.

17 . The method of claim 16 wherein the carrier solvent is an aprotic organic solvent.

18 . The method of claim 16 wherein the carrier solvent is acetonitrile.

19 . The method of claim 16 wherein the liquid etching solution further comprises hydrochloric acid.

20 . The method of claim 15 wherein the etching step involves exposing the first substrate surface to a liquid etching solution comprising an organic carbonic acid as the etchant and a carrier solvent that is inert in direct contact with the glass substrate.

21 . The method of claim 20 wherein the carrier solvent is an aprotic solvent selected from the group consisting of glymes and organic carbonates.

22 . The method of step 15 wherein the etching media is a gaseous/vapor etching mixture comprising water as the etchant and a carrier gas that is inert in direct contact with the glass substrate.

23 . The method of step 15 wherein the etching media is a gaseous/vapor etching mixture comprising an organic carbonic acid as the etchant and a carrier gas that is inert in direct contact with the glass substrate.

24 . The method of claim 22 wherein the carrier gas is one or more of argon gas and nitrogen gas.

25 . The method of step 15 wherein the etching media is a plasma as the etchant.

26 . The method of claim 25 wherein the plasma is a chemically reactive plasma.

27 . The method of claim 25 wherein the plasma is an argon plasma.

28 . The method of claim 15 further comprising applying or forming a hole or trench patterned mask onto the first substrate surface prior to the etching step.

29 . The method of claim 28 wherein the patterned mask is a structural mask made from a metal or a plastic.

30 . The method of claim 28 wherein the patterned mask is a photoresist.

31 . The method of claim 30 wherein the photoresist is applied onto the substrate and baked at temperatures below the glass transition temperature of the Li ion conducting sulfide glass substrate.

32 . The method of claim 30 wherein the hole pattern is imparted to the photoresist using a non-aqueous solution as developer

33 . The method of claim 32 wherein the non-aqueous developer solution comprises tetramethylammonium hydroxide in a dry aprotic solvent.

34 - 35 . (canceled)

36 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising vacuum impregnating a slurry comprising cathode active material into the holes and/or trenches of one of the major surfaces, thereby forming a battery cell.

Assignees

• Polyplus Battery Co Inc

Inventors

• Visco Steven J
• Nimon Vitaliy
• Loginova Valentina
• Nimon Yevgeniy S
• Katz Bruce D

Classifications

• H01M10/0525

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

• C03C15/00

  Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments, by etching (etching or surface-brightening compositions, in general C09K13/00) · CPC title

• H01M2300/0068

  inorganic · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/1391

  of electrodes based on mixed oxides or hydroxides, or on mixtures of oxides or hydroxides, e.g. LiCoOx · CPC title