Carbon Foam Based Three-Dimensional Batteries and Methods

• US 20090291368A1
• Filed: 08/18/2008
• Published: 11/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Physical Sciences Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Physical Sciences Incorporated
• Inventors: Lang, Christopher, White, Kevin, Newman, Aron, Horn, Quinn
• Application Number:
  US12/193,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20090291368A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 429/245
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/0525 Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 4/29 by electrochemical methods
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 4/525 of mixed oxides or hydroxides containing iron, cobalt or nickel for inserting or intercalating light metals, e.g. LiNiO2, LiCoO2 or LiCoOxFy
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 4/587 for inserting or intercalating light metals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries

Abstract

A three-dimensional battery can include a three-dimensional porous carbon foam base and an anode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a first region of the base. The three-dimensional battery can also include an electrolyte layer disposed over the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base and a cathode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a second region of the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base.

Claims

1. A three-dimensional battery comprising:

a three-dimensional porous carbon foam base;

an anode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a first region of the base;

an electrolyte layer disposed over the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base; and

a cathode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a second region of the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base.

2. The battery of claim 1 comprising a gravimetric energy of about 150 Wh/kg to about 200 Wh/kg at a 10 C discharge rate.

3. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base comprises Grafoam FRA-15.

4. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a porosity of about 80%.

5. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a porosity of range of about 98.5% to about 61%.

6. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a pore size of about 200 μ

m.

7. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a pore size range of about 1 μ

m to about 100 μ

m.

8. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a cell size from about 5 μ

m to about 5000 μ

m.

9. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a density in a range of about 0.03 g/cm³ to about 0.6 g/cm³.

10. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a compressive strength in a range of about 0.2 MPa to about 60 MPa.

11. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a resistivity of about 1.4×

10<sup>−

3</sup> ohms/cm.

12. The battery of claim 1 wherein the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base has a Li+ capacity of about 160 mAh/g.

13. The battery of claim 1 further comprising a layer of polyphenyl oxide formed over the electrolyte layer.

14. The battery of claim 13 wherein the layer of polyphenyl oxide has a layer thickness of about 20 nm to about 200 nm.

15. The battery of claim 1 wherein the anode current collector is in electrical communication with the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base.

16. The battery of claim 1 further comprising a cathode layer disposed over the electrolyte layer.

17. The battery of claim 16 wherein the cathode layer comprises about 90 wt % LiCoO₂ nanoparticles, about 5 wt % aqueous binder and about 5 wt % carbon black.

18. The battery of claim 16 wherein the cathode current collector is in electrical communication with the cathode layer.

19. A method of making a three-dimensional battery comprising:

attaching an anode current collector to a region of a three-dimensional porous carbon foam base;

immersing the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base in an electrolyte to form an electrolyte layer over the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base;

forming a layer of polyphenyl oxide formed over the electrolyte layer using an electropolymerization process;

infiltrating the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base with a carbon slurry; and

attaching a cathode current collector to a second region of the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein infiltrating comprises infiltrating the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base with about 90 wt % LiCoO₂ nanoparticles, about 5 wt % aqueous binder and about 5 wt % carbon black.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising removing fluid from the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base to form a cathode layer over the polyphenyl oxide layer.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein attaching the cathode current collector to the second region of the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base comprises forming an electrically conductive path between the cathode current collector and the cathode layer.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein attaching an anode current collector to the region of the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base comprises forming an electrically conductive path between the anode current collector and the three-dimensional porous carbon foam base.

24. The method of claim 19, further comprising applying 60 second pulses of about 1.1 Volts to about 2.3 Volts vs. Ag/AgCl to form the layer of the polyphenyl oxide.

33. The method of claim 19 wherein the electrolyte is an acetonitrile-based electrolyte containing sodium phenoxide.

34. The method of claim 19 wherein the electrolyte is an acetonitrile-based electrolyte containing 0.05 M sodium phenoxide.

25. A method of making a three-dimensional battery comprising:

forming a three-dimensional base from a porous carbon foam having a predetermined geometric structure;

bonding an anode current collector to a region of the three-dimensional base;

forming a thin film layer of an electrolyte over the three-dimensional base;

forming a layer of polyphenyl oxide formed over the electrolyte layer;

infiltrating the three-dimensional base with a carbon slurry;

bonding the cathode current collector to a second region of the three-dimensional base.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein infiltrating comprises infiltrating the three-dimensional base with about 90 wt % LiCoO₂ nanoparticles, about 5 wt % aqueous binder and about 5 wt % carbon black.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising applying 60 second pulses of about 1.1 Volts to about 2.3 Volts vs. Ag/AgCl to form the layer of the polyphenyl oxide.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising removing fluid from the three-dimensional base to form a cathode layer over the polyphenyl oxide layer.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein bonding the cathode current collector to the second region of the three-dimensional base comprises forming an electrically conductive path between the cathode current collector and the cathode layer.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein bonding the anode current collector to the region of the three-dimensional base comprises forming an electrically conductive path between the anode current collector and the porous carbon foam of the three-dimensional base.

35. The method of claim 25 wherein forming a thin film layer of an electrolyte comprises placing the three-dimensional base bonded to the anode current collector in an acetonitrile-based electrolyte containing sodium phenoxide.

36. The method of claim 25 wherein forming a thin film layer of an electrolyte comprises placing the three-dimensional base bonded to the anode current collector in an acetonitrile-based electrolyte containing 0.05 M sodium phenoxide.

31. A three-dimensional battery comprising:

a three-dimensional porous anode foam base;

an anode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a first region of the base;

a separator layer disposed over the three-dimensional porous anode foam base; and

a cathode current collector bonded to and in electrical communication with a second region of the three-dimensional porous anode foam base.

32. The battery of claim 31 wherein the porous anode foam base comprises at least one of carbon, graphite, metallic lithium, a lithium alloy, aluminum, indium, tin, antimony, lead, silicon, lithium nitride, Li_2.6Co_0.4N, Li_4.4Si, or lithium titanate.