The College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University believes we could manufacture viable porous electrodes for lithium-ion batteries soon. However, there is still work to do before we can speak of universal 3D Printing. Because only a few electrode architectures currently produce commercially viable results.
Improvements Coming for 3D Printing Next Gen Electrodes
The best internal geometry to date has been “an interdigitated geometry — metal prongs interlocked like the fingers of two clasped hands. While the lithium shuttles between the two sides” Science Daily explains.
However, Carnegie Mellon University researchers believe there would be a vast improvement “if on the microscale, their electrodes have pores and channels.” Therefore, the team has come up with a new 3D Printing method that creates a 3-D micro lattice structure with controlled porosity”. This, they say, produces higher charge capacity in lithium-ion batteries.
“Such architectures allow the lithium to penetrate through the electrode volume leading to very high electrode utilization,” they say. And thereby enabling higher energy storage capacity.
Better Lithium Penetration Allows Very High Electrode Utilization
“In normal batteries, 30-50% of the total electrode volume is unutilized,” they explain. “But our method overcomes this issue by using 3D printing. Where we create a micro-lattice electrode architecture that allows the efficient transport of lithium through the entire electrode. This also increases the battery charging rates.”
They hope their disruptive method will benefit biomedical electronic devices, as well as space research. We hope their technology finds its way to consumer electronics soon. Carnegie Mellon University developed a new 3D Printing method to make this possible. They have found a way of assembling individual droplets into three-dimensional structures. Compared to this, the current industrial standard extrudes a wire of material in a nozzle, creating continuous structures with far lower density.
Moreover, the relatively low weight of the new product appears well suited to aviation applications. On account of the low weight and high capacity of the batteries which could hasten all-electric airplanes.
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Preview Image: 3D Micro Lattice Structure with Controlled Porosity
