Electrolyte for a metal-ion battery cell with high-capacity, micron-scale, volume-changing anode particles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026031404-A1
Application number	US-202519350727-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 6, 2025
Priority date	Sep 12, 2017
Publication date	Jan 29, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

In an embodiment, a metal-ion battery cell comprises an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, a separator, and electrolyte ionically coupling the anode electrode and the cathode electrode. The anode electrode is a high-capacity electrode (e.g., in the range of about 2 mAh/cm2 to about 10 mAh/cm2). The electrolyte includes a solvent composition, the solvent composition including low-melting point (LMP) solvent(s) in the range from about 10 vol. % to about 80 vol. % of the solvent composition as well as regular-melting point (RMP) solvent(s) in the range from about 20 vol. % to about 90 vol. % of the solvent composition.

First claim

1 . A Li-ion battery cell, comprising:
a porous Si-comprising anode electrode with an areal capacity loading in a range of 2 mAh/cm 2 to 10 mAh/cm 2 , and comprising: silicon-carbon (Si—C) nanocomposite anode particles, and a binder, wherein: the Si—C nanocomposite anode particles: (a) exhibit an average particle size in a range of 4 microns to 14 microns, (b) exhibit true density in a range from 1.2 g/cc to 2.0 g/cc, and (d) exhibit volume changes from 4 vol. % to 180 vol. % during one or more charge-discharge cycles of the Li-ion battery cell, a total open pore volume fraction of the porous Si-comprising anode electrode ranges from 5 vol. % to 35 vol. %, and a total weight fraction of the binder ranges from to 2 wt. % to 12 wt. %; a porous cathode electrode comprising lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode particles and/or lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) cathode particles; a separator electrically separating the porous Si-comprising anode electrode and the porous cathode electrode; and an electrolyte ionically coupling the porous Si-comprising anode electrode and the porous cathode electrode and at least partially filling pores in the porous Si-comprising anode electrode, the cathode electrode and the separator, wherein: the electrolyte comprises LiPF 6 and an electrolyte solvent composition, the electrolyte solvent composition comprises (i) a low-melting point solvent composition comprising one or more esters with an average number of carbon atoms per molecule ranging between 5 to 6 and a chemical formula selected from: C 5 H 10 O 2 and/or C 6 H 12 O 2 ; (ii) a regular-melting point solvent composition comprising two or more carbonates selected from: vinylene carbonate (VC), fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC), diethyl carbonate (DEC); and (iii) a nitrile solvent-comprising additive composition, the low-melting point solvent composition has a melting point in a range from −140° C. to less than −60° C., and the regular-melting point solvent composition has a melting point in a range from −60° C. to +30° C.

2 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the Si—C nanocomposite anode particles exhibit specific capacity in a range from about 650 mAh/g or about 2700 mAh/g.

3 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein Si—C nanocomposite anode particles exhibit specific surface area below 15 m 2 /g.

4 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte comprises at least one lithium salt in addition to LiPF 6 .

5 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 4 , wherein the at least one lithium salt comprises fluorine.

6 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 4 , wherein the at least one lithium salt comprises sulfur.

7 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 4 , wherein the at least one lithium salt comprises lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (LiFSI).

8 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the low-melting point solvent composition comprises ethyl propionate.

9 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the low-melting point solvent composition comprises propyl propionate.

10 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 9 , wherein the low-melting point solvent composition further comprises ethyl propionate.

11 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the low-melting point solvent composition comprises from around 20 to about 70 vol. % of all solvents in the electrolyte.

12 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the low-melting point solvent composition comprises 50 vol. % or more of the C 5 H 10 O 2 .

13 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the regular-melting point solvent composition comprises propylene carbonate (PC).

14 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the regular-melting point solvent composition comprises each of the following cyclic carbonate solvents: vinylene carbonate (VC), fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC), ethylene carbonate (EC), and propylene carbonate (PC).

15 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the regular-melting point solvent composition comprises one or more cyclic carbonates in the range from about 10 vol. % to about 50 vol. % of all solvents in the electrolyte.

16 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the regular-melting point solvent composition comprises diethyl carbonate (DEC).

17 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the nitrile solvent-comprising additive composition comprises one or more dinitrile.

18 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 17 , wherein the one or more dinitrile comprises adiponitrile (ADN).

19 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the nitrile solvent-comprising additive composition contributes to less than 10 vol. % of all solvents in the electrolyte.

20 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the total open pore volume fraction of the porous Si-comprising anode electrode ranges from about 5 vol. % to about 25 vol.

21 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the areal capacity loading is in a range of 3 mAh/cm 2 to 10 mAh/cm 2 .

22 . The Li-ion battery cell of claim 1 , wherein the areal capacity loading is in a range of 4 mAh/cm 2 to 10 mAh/cm 2 .

Assignees

• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc

Inventors

• Yushin Gleb
• Ward Ashleigh

Classifications

• H01M2300/0037

  Mixture of solvents · CPC title

• H01M10/0568

  characterised by the solutes · CPC title

• H01M10/0567

  characterised by the additives · CPC title

• H01M10/0525 Primary

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

• H01M4/525

  of mixed oxides or hydroxides containing iron, cobalt or nickel for inserting or intercalating light metals, e.g. LiNiO2, LiCoO2 or LiCoOxFy · CPC title