Abstract
The project's goal is to develop, combine and understand two key novel strategies that will enable the usage of thick lithium-ion battery electrodes. The first strategy involves the structuring of electrodes by femtosecond laser ablation, giving rise to batteries with increased capacity retention and decreased lithium plating risks, allowing increased charging rates for thick electrodes (>100 µm). The second strategy involves the pressure management of lithium ion batteries, which leads to decreased resistances due to improved interparticle contacts. Although each strategy individually will improve battery performance, by combining them for the first time its effect will be amplified and issues regarding particle cracking, inhomogeneous lithium distribution and decreased ion mobility due to compression will be prevented. To gain further insights into the mechanisms of lithiation and delithiation, a dedicated international research stay focussing on in-situ characterisation by techniques such as spectroscopy and XRD is planned. The insights from the in-situ characterisation together with extensive electrochemical testing will allow the expansion of an open-source phase-field model to make detailed predictions about the lithium plating probability in these electrodes.
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