Silicon particles for battery electrodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9941509-B2
Application number	US-201715413135-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2017
Priority date	Jan 18, 2010
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

Silicon particles for active materials and electro-chemical cells are provided. The active materials comprising silicon particles described herein can be utilized as an electrode material for a battery. In certain embodiments, the composite material includes greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of silicon particles. The silicon particles have an average particle size between about 0.1 μm and about 30 μm and a surface including nanometer-sized features. The composite material also includes greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of one or more types of carbon phases. At least one of the one or more types of carbon phases is a substantially continuous phase.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A composite material comprising:
greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of silicon particles, the silicon particles having an average particle size between about 0.1 μm and about 30 μm and a surface roughness comprising nanometer-sized features; and
greater than 0% and less than about 90% by weight of one or more types of carbon phases, wherein at least one of the one or more types of carbon phases is a continuous phase comprising hard carbon and holding the composite material together.

2. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the nanometer-sized features comprise a silicon material.

3. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the nanometer-sized features comprise an average feature size between about 1 nm and about 1 μm.

4. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the average particle size of the silicon particles is between about 1 μm and about 20 μm.

5. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the average particle size of the silicon particles is between about 5 μm and about 20 μm.

6. The composite material of claim 4 , wherein the average particle size of the silicon particles is between about 1 μm and about 10 μm.

7. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the average particle size of the silicon particles is between about 0.5 μm and about 2 μm.

8. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the silicon particles further comprise an average surface area per unit mass between about 1 m 2 /g and about 30 m 2 /g.

9. The composite material of claim 1 , wherein the silicon particles further comprise a purity of above 99.9999%.

10. An electrode configured to be used in an electro-chemical cell comprising the composite material of claim 1 .

11. The electrode of claim 10 , wherein the electrode is an anode.

Assignees

• Enevate Corp

Inventors

• Park Benjamin Yong
• Turon Teixidor Genis
• Anderson Heidi Leighette
• Browne Ian Russell

Classifications

• H01M4/386

  Silicon or alloys based on silicon · CPC title

• C01B33/021

  Preparation (chemical coating from the vapour phase C23C16/00) · CPC title

• C01B32/00

  Carbon; Compounds thereof (C01B21/00, C01B23/00 take precedence; percarbonates C01B15/10; carbon black C09C1/48) · CPC title

• B29C48/91

  Heating, e.g. for cross linking · CPC title

• B29C48/154

  Coating solid articles, i.e. non-hollow articles · CPC title