Review on Multi-Scale Models of Solid-Electrolyte Interphase Formation

Electrolyte reduction products form the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) on negative electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. Even though this process practically stabilizes the electrode-electrolyte interface, it results in continued capacity-fade limiting lifetime and safety of lithium-ion batteries. Recent atomistic and continuum theories give new insights into the growth of structures and the transport of ions in the SEI. The diffusion of neutral radicals has emerged as a prominent candidate for the long-term growth mechanism, because it predicts the observed potential dependence of SEI growth.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

UTILIZATION OF BIO-RENEWABLE LIGNIN IN BUILDING HIGH CAPACITY, DURABLE, AND LOW-COST SILICON-BASED NEGATIVE ELECTRODES FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES

Silicon-based electrodes are the most promising negative electrodes for the next generation high capacity lithium ion batteries (LIB) as silicon provides a theoretical capacity of 3579 mAh g-1, more than 10 times higher than that of the state-of-the-art graphite negative electrodes. However, silicon-based electrodes suffer from poor cycle life due to large volume expansion and contraction during lithiation/delithiation. In order to improve the electrochemical performance a number of strategies have been employed, such as dispersion of silicon in active/inactive matrixes, devising of novel nanostructures, and various coatings for protection. Amongst these strategies, silicon-carbon coating based composites are one of the most promising because carbon coating is comparatively flexible, easy to obtain, and scalable with various industrial processes. Low cost and renewable lignin, which constitutes up to 30% dry mass of the organic carbon on earth, is widely available from paper and pulp mills which produce lignin in excess of 50 million tons annually worldwide. It is a natural bio-polymer with high carbon content and highly interconnected aromatic network existing as a structural adhesive found in plants. Generally burnt for energy on site, lignin is gradually finding its way into high value-added products such as precursor for carbon fibers, active material in negative electrodes, and raw material for supercapacitors. This dissertation focuses on high performance silicon-based negative electrodes utilizing lignin as the carbon precursor for conductive additive, binder, and carbon coating. To my knowledge this is one of the first works attempting to utilize and summarize the performance of lignin in silicon-based negative electrodes. The first part of the dissertation shows that silicon-lignin composites treated at 800 ºC displayed good capacity and cycling performance. The second part goes to generalize the effect of temperature on silicon-lignin composites and shows that a low temperature treatment granted an electrode with superior performance and cycling properties owing to the preservation of polymeric properties of lignin. The final part of the dissertation discusses the current research trends in SiOx based negative electrodes and extends lignin to that field. This dissertation will, hopefully, provide knowledge and insight for fellow researchers wishing to utilize lignin or other renewable resources in devising advanced battery electrodes

Electrochemical Studies on LaNi5–xSnx Metal Hydride Alloys

Electrochemical studies were performed on LaNi5–xSnx with 0 <= x <= 0.5. We measured the effect of the Sn substituent on the kinetics of charge-transfer and diffusion during hydrogen absorption and desorption, and the cyclic lifetimes of LaNi5–-xSnx electrodes in 250 mAh laboratory test cells. We report beneficial effects of making small substitutions of Sn for Ni in LaNi5 on the performance of the metal hydride alloy anode in terms of cyclic lifetime, capacity, and kinetics. The optimal concentration of Sn in LaNi5–xSnx alloys for negative electrodes in alkaline rechargeable secondary cells was found to lie in the range 0.25 <= x <= 0.3

Electric battery and method for operating same Patent

Elimination of two step voltage discharge property of silver zinc batteries by using divalent silver oxide capacity of cell to charge anodes to monovalent silver stat

Plasma accelerator Patent

Crossed-field plasma accelerator for laboratory simulation of atmospheric reentry condition

UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE-PROPERTY-PERFORMANCE RELATIONSHIP OF SILICON NEGATIVE ELECTRODES

Rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have long been used to power not only portable devices, e.g., mobile phones and laptops, but also large scale systems, e.g., electrical grid and electric vehicles. To meet the ever increasing demand for renewable energy storage, tremendous efforts have been devoted to improving the energy/power density of LIBs. Known for its high theoretical capacity (4200 mAh/g), silicon has been considered as one of the most promising negative electrode materials for high-energy-density LIBs. However, diffusion-induced stresses can cause fracture and, consequently, rapid degradation in the electrochemical performance of Si-based negative electrodes. To mitigate the detrimental effects of the large volume change, several strategies have been proposed. This dissertation focuses on two promising approaches to make high performance and durable Si electrodes for high capacity LIBs. First, the effect of polymeric binders on the performance of Si-based electrodes is investigated. By studying two types of polymeric binders, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and sodium alginate (SA) using peel tests, SEM, XPS, and FTIR, I show that the high cohesive strength at the binder-silicon interface is responsible for the superior cell performance of the Si electrodes with SA as a binder. Hydrogen bonds formed between SA and Si is the main reason for the high cohesive strength since neither PVDF nor SA bonds covalently with Si. Second, the fabrication of high performance Si/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) composite electrode via oxidative pyrolysis is investigated. We show that high performance Si/polyacrylonitrile (PAN) composite negative electrodes can be fabricated by a robust heat treatment in air at a temperature between 250 and 400oC. Using Raman, SEM, XPS, TEM, TGA, and nanoindention, we established that oxidation, dehydration, aromatization, and intermolecular crosslinking take place in PAN during the heat treatment, resulting in a stable cyclized structure which functions as both a binder and a conductive agent in the Si/PAN composite electrodes. With a Si mass loading of 1 mg/cm2, a discharge capacity of ~1600 mAh/g at the 100th cycle is observed in the 400oC treated Si/PAN composite electrode when cycled at a rate of C/3. These studies on the structure-property-performance relations of Si based negative electrode may benefit the LIB community by providing (1) a guide for the design and optimization of binder materials for Si electrodes and (2) a facile method of synthesizing Si-based composite negative electrodes that can potentially be applied to other Si/polymer systems for further increasing the power/energy density and lower the cost of LIBs for electric vehicle applications and beyond