Anode material having a uniform metal-semiconductor alloy layer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9608263-B2
Application number	US-201514810624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2015
Priority date	Apr 17, 2008
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods for producing anode materials for use in nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries. In the present invention, a metal-semiconductor alloy layer is formed on an anode material by contacting a portion of the anode material with a solution containing metals ions and a dissolution component. When the anode material is contacted with the solution, the dissolution component dissolves a part of the semiconductor material in the anode material and deposit the metal on the anode material. After deposition, the anode material and metal are annealed to form a uniform metal-semiconductor alloy layer. The anode material of the present invention can be in a monolithic form or a particle form. When the anode material is in a particle form, the particulate anode material can be further shaped and sintered to agglomerate the particulate anode material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A secondary battery comprising an anode, a cathode and a non aqueous electrolyte, the anode comprising a porous agglomerated mass of a sintered particulate material, wherein the particulate material comprises a semiconductor material core and a metal-semiconductor alloy layer thereon and has a diameter of about 0.001 micrometers to 100 micrometers, the volume of the metal-semiconductor alloy layer is about 0.1% to 5% of the total particle volume; and wherein particles within the agglomerated mass are adhered together by the metal-semiconductor alloy layer.

2. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein the semiconductor material comprises silicon or germanium.

3. The secondary battery of claim 2 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel, copper, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, palladium or rhodium.

4. The secondary battery of claim 2 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel.

5. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel, copper, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, palladium or rhodium.

6. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel.

7. The secondary battery of claim 1 the metal-semiconductor alloy layer has a thickness of about 100 nanometers to 3 micrometers.

8. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein the secondary battery comprises an anode current collector and the anode is formed on the anode current collector.

9. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein porous mass of a sintered particulate material is in the shape of a pillar.

10. The secondary battery of claim 1 wherein the secondary battery is a lithium ion battery.

11. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein the semiconductor material comprises silicon or germanium.

12. The secondary battery of claim 11 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel, copper, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, palladium or rhodium.

13. The secondary battery of claim 11 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel.

14. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel, copper, cobalt, silver, gold, platinum, palladium or rhodium.

15. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein the metal of the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel.

16. The secondary battery of claim 10 the metal-semiconductor alloy layer has a thickness of about 100 nanometers to 3 micrometers.

17. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein the secondary battery comprises an anode current collector and the anode is formed on the anode current collector.

18. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein porous mass of a sintered particulate material is in the shape of a pillar.

19. The secondary battery of claim 10 wherein the semiconductor material comprises silicon, the metal-semiconductor alloy is nickel silicide, and the metal-semiconductor alloy layer has a thickness of about 100 nanometers to 3 micrometers.

20. The secondary battery of claim 19 wherein porous mass of a sintered particulate material is in the shape of a pillar.

21. The secondary batter of claim 1 , wherein the metal-semiconductor alloy layer provides both adhesion and cohesion of the particles in the porous agglomerated mass.

Assignees

• Enovix Corp

Inventors

• Ramasubramanian Murali
• Spotnitz Robert M

Classifications

• H01M4/0404

  by coating on electrode collectors · CPC title

• H01M2220/30

  Batteries in portable systems, e.g. mobile phone, laptop · CPC title

• H01M4/362

  Composites · CPC title

• H01M2004/025

  with shapes other than plane or cylindrical · CPC title

• H01M4/0409

  by a doctor blade method, slip-casting or roller coating · CPC title