Thicker battery electrodes pack in more active materials, promising higher energy density.
Thicker battery electrodes pack in more active materials, promising higher energy density. However, when it comes to lithium-ion battery performance, electrode materials’ thermodynamic properties matter more than their structural design.
A team of Rice University researchers led by materials scientist Ming Tang showed that even if the materials used in thick battery electrodes have nearly identical structures, their internal chemistry impacts energy flow ⎯ and, hence, performance ⎯ differently. This finding goes against conventional wisdom in the field, which holds that creating pore channels in the electrode material via different patterning techniques could mitigate poor reaction uniformity.
“‘Thick’ battery electrodes store more energy, which is great for longer phone life or electric car charge but struggle to charge and discharge quickly due to limited usable capacity,” said Zeyuan Li, a Rice doctoral alumnus and first author on the study. “Imagine trying to fill a thick sponge evenly with water, but the water only rushes into a portion of the sponge, leaving the rest dry ⎯ that is the problem with ‘thick’ electrodes.”
Read More: Rice University
Zeyuan Li and Ming Tang (Photo Credit: Jorge Vidal/Rice University)
