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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9373838-B2
Application number	US-201013498529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2010
Priority date	Sep 29, 2009
Publication date	Jun 21, 2016
Grant date	Jun 21, 2016

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 porous composite comprising:
a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein each of the plurality of nanocomposites comprises:
a dendritic particle comprising 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;

wherein each nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of the dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, and
wherein the porous composite comprises a total pore volume within the porous composite that has a range of 3 to 20 times the volume occupied by all of the non-carbon Group 4A element nanoparticles in the porous composite.

2. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the electrically conducting material of the dendritic particle is amorphous or graphitic carbon.

3. The porous composite of claim 2 , wherein the amorphous carbon is carbon black.

4. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof comprises silicon.

5. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the porous composite further comprises an electrically conducting coating disposed on at least a portion of a surface of a dendritic particle of at least one of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites.

6. The porous composite of claim 5 , wherein the electrically conducting coating is formed from carbon.

7. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites are agglomerated together using an electrically conducting additive.

8. The porous composite of claim 7 , wherein the electrically conducting additive is carbon.

9. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles has an average longest dimension of about 5 nanometers to about 200nanometers.

10. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles comprise about 15 weight percent to about 90 weight percent of each nanocomposite.

11. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein the porous composite is a spherical or substantially-spherical granule.

12. The porous composite of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the discrete non-porous nanoparticles on the surface of the dendritic particle contact each other.

13. A battery electrode comprising:
a conductive metal substrate; and
a porous composite dispersed in a binder coupled to the conductive metal substrate, wherein the porous composite comprises a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein at least one nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites comprises:
a dendritic particle comprising 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 disposed on a surface of the dendritic particle;

wherein the at least one nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of the dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, and
wherein the electrode comprises a total pore volume within the electrode that has a range of 3 to 20 times the volume occupied by all of the non-carbon Group 4A element nanoparticles in the porous composite.

14. A battery, comprising:
a cathode comprising lithium;
an anode comprising a porous composite dispersed in a binder coupled to a conductive metal substrate, wherein the porous composite comprises a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein at least one of the plurality of nanocomposites comprises:
a dendritic particle comprising 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,
wherein at least one nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of the dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, and
wherein the anode comprises a total pore volume within the anode that has a range of 3 to 20 times the volume occupied by all of the non-carbon Group 4A element nanoparticles in the porous composite;

a separator, positioned between the cathode and the anode; and
an electrolyte composition disposed between the cathode and the anode.

15. A method of making a porous composite, the method comprising:
forming a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein each of the plurality of nanocomposites is formed by:
obtaining a three-dimensional, randomly-ordered dendritic particle composed of a plurality of discrete nanoparticles of an electrically conducting material, and
disposing a plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof on a surface of the dendritic particle to form a nanocomposite particle;

wherein the porous composite is formed with a total pore volume within the porous composite that has a range of 3 to 20 times the volume occupied by all of the non-carbon Group 4A element nanoparticles in the porous composite.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the three-dimensional, randomly-ordered dendritic particle is obtained by annealing carbon black nanoparticles at a temperature of above about 2000 ° C.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the three-dimensional, randomly-ordered dendritic particle is obtained by pyrolysis of a hydrocarbon gas at a temperature of between about 700 ° C. to about 1400 ° C.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of discrete non-porous nanoparticles of a non-carbon Group 4A element or mixture thereof are disposed on the surface of the dendritic particle using a chemical vapor deposition process.

19. A method of making an electrode, the method comprising:
obtaining a porous composite, the porous composite comprising a plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, wherein each of the plurality of nanocomposites comprises:
a dendritic particle comprising 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,
wherein each nanocomposite of the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites has at least a portion of the dendritic particle in electrical communication with at least a portion of a dendritic particle of an adjacent nanocomposite in the plurality of agglomerated nanocomposites, and
wherein the electrode is formed with a total pore volume within the electrode that has a range of 3 to 20 times the volume occupied by all of the non-carbon Group 4A element nanoparticles in the porous composite;
forming a mixture of the porous composite with a binder; and
applying the mixture to a conductive metal substrate.

Assignees

• Yushin Gleb
• Magazynskyy Oleksandr
• Dixon Patrick
• Hertzberg Benjamin
• Georgia Tech Res Inst
• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• Y10S977/773

  Nanoparticle, i.e. structure having three dimensions of 100 nm or less · CPC title

• B82Y30/00

  Nanotechnology for materials or surface science, e.g. nanocomposites · CPC title

• H01M4/386

  Silicon or alloys based on silicon · CPC title

• H01M4/625

  Carbon or graphite · CPC title

• H01M4/587

  for inserting or intercalating light metals · CPC title