Reducing the scrap rate in lithium-ion battery manufacturing by implementing in-line non-destructive electrode evaluation techniques

3^rd International Conference and Exhibition on Materials Science & Engineering

October 06-08, 2014 Hilton San Antonio Airport, USA

Debasish Mohanty, Jianlin Li, Rachael Born, Curt L Maxey, Ralph B Dinwiddie, Claus Daniel and David L Wood

Accepted Abstracts: Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

The cost of current lithium ion battery (LIB) manufacturing (i.e. from raw materials to the battery testing) is nearly three times higher than the target set by US Department of Energy. One of the routes to reducing the scrap rate in battery manufacturing is implementing in-line non-destructive (ND) quality control (QC) techniques. Currently, electrode thickness variation and certain flaws such as pinholes, agglomerates in the electrodes are not detected during electrode coating. Costs can be added until the battery devices are tested, and the associated scrap rates increase the costs of lithium secondary cells to an unacceptable level. If electrode flaws and contaminants could be detected in-line near the particular processing steps generating them and before electrochemical testing, the electrode area consisting of the flaws could be identified, and conditions could be adjusted to eliminate those defects in a timely manner hence, reducing the scrap rate. This presentation will showcase ORNL?s effort to implementing in-line laser caliper and thermography techniques to detect the flaws associated during electrode coating process in a slot-die coater and its effect on electrochemistry. This QC demonstration presents the proof of concept for the ND evaluation of LIB electrodes during the coating process in a slot-die coater.

Biography :

Debasish Mohanty has obtained his PhD in Chemistry from University of New Orleans, USA and currently is a postdoctoral research associate in Materials Science Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His current research is focused on understanding the structure and structural degradation mechanism(s) in lithium-ion battery electrodes by applying materials diagnostic techniques and non-destructive quality control (QC) evaluation of lithium-ion battery electrodes. He has extensive experience in oxide (nano) materials synthesis and characterizing the oxide cathode materials by x-ray and neutron diffraction, magnetic susceptibility measurements, microscopy techniques.