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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Heat sterilization of silver oxide and zinc electrodes, separator, and molded polysulfone cell cases for sealed remotely activated battery
A battery system is disclosed which includes folded grids of expanded metal inserted through non-conductive substrates and pasted with electrochemically active materials. In the most preferred embodiment, a frame is provided with a plastic insert, and slots are provided in the latter to receive the expanded metal grid. After suitable coinage of the grid and insertion through the plastic film, the grid is sealed and pasted on opposite sides with positive and negative active material. A battery is assembled using one or a plurality of the resulting electrode elements, with separators, to produce a high-power, lead-acid battery. The folded grid provides many of the design benefits of standard bipolar construction.
R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Established methods that typify R2R processing include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating, and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, the means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations and the coating and drying processes to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product. To solve the problems associated with these challenges, the R2R Collaboration is executing a research program with outcomes that will ultimately link modeling, processing, metrology and defect detection tools, thereby directly relating the properties of constituent particles and processing conditions to the performance of final devices. This collaborative approach was designed to foster identification and development of materials and processes related to R2R for clean-energy materials development. Using computational and experimental capabilities by acknowledged subject matter experts within the supported National Laboratory system, this project leverages the capabilities and expertise at each of five National Laboratories to further the development of multilayer technologies that will enable high-volume, cost-competitive platforms. A typical R2R process has three steps: (1) mixing of particles and various constituents in a slurry, (2) coating of the ink/slurry mixture on a substrate, and (3) drying/curing and processing of the coating. Final performance of devices made via R2R processes is dependent on the active materials (e.g., electrochemical particles in battery or fuel cell electrodes) and the device structure that stems from the governing component interactions within the various steps. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms and phenomena is still lacking, which is why industrial-scale R2R process development and manufacturing is still largely empirical in nature. The FY 2019 through FY 2021 program addresses aspects of the following two targets from the AMO Multi-Year Program Plan: (1) Target 8.1 Develop technologies to reduce the cost per manufactured throughput of continuous R2R manufacturing processes. (A) Increasing throughput of R2R processes by 5 times for batteries (to 50 square feet per minute (50 ft 2 /min)) and capacitors and 10 times for printed electronics and the manufacture of other substrates and MEs used in support of these products. (B) Developing resolution capabilities to enable registration and alignment that will detect, align, and co-deposit multiple layers of coatings and print < 1-micron (1 µm) features using continuous process scalable for commercial production. (C) Developing scalable and reliable R2R processes for solution deposition of ultra-thin (<10 nm) films for active and passive materials. (D) Develop in-line multilayer coating technology on thin films with yields greater than 95%. (2) Target 8.2 Develop in-line instrumentation tools that will evaluate the quality of single and multilayer materials in-process. (A) Developing in-line QC technologies and methodologies for real-time identification of defects and expected product properties “in-use/application” during continuous processing at all size-scales with a focus on the “micro” and “nano” scale traces, lines, and devices, i.e., <1 μm at 300 ft./min for R2R processing in air and <10 nm at 20 ft./min for vacuum (B) Developing technologies to increase the measurement frequency of surface rheology without significant cost increases with a goal of a 10-nanometer in-line profilometry at a production rate of 100,000 square millimeters per minute (100,000 mm 2 /min).
Abstract A thin solid electrolyte with a high Li + conductivity is used to separate the metallic lithium anode and the cathode in an all‐solid‐state Li‐metal battery. However, most solid Li‐ion electrolytes have a small electrochemical stability window, large interfacial resistance, and cannot block lithium‐dendrite growth when lithium is plated on charging of the cell. Mg 2+ stabilizes a rhombohedral NASICON‐structured solid electrolyte of the formula Li 1.2 Mg 0.1 Zr 1.9 (PO 4 ) 3 (LMZP). This solid electrolyte has Li‐ion conductivity two orders of magnitude higher at 25 °C than that of the triclinic LiZr 2 (PO 4 ) 3 . 7 Li and 6 Li NMR confirm the Li‐ions in two different crystallographic sites of the NASICON framework with 85% of the Li‐ions having a relatively higher mobility than the other 15%. The anode–electrolyte interface is further investigated with symmetric Li/LMZP/Li cell testing, while the cathode–electrolyte interface is explored with an all‐solid‐state Li/LMZP/LiFePO 4 cell. The enhanced performance of these cells enabled by the Li 1.2 Mg 0.1 Zr 1.9 (PO 4 ) 3 solid electrolyte is stable upon repeated charge/discharge cycling.
Energy storage cell qualification and related systems, methods, and devices are disclosed. A method of qualifying rechargeable battery cells includes taking measurements on the rechargeable battery cells, determining specific capacity distributions of the rechargeable battery cells as a function of a number of discharge cycles based on the measurements, determining one or more specific capacity thresholds to separate the specific capacity distributions of the rechargeable battery cells into two or more classifications, and qualifying the rechargeable battery cells into the two or more classifications based, at least in part, on the specific capacity distributions and the one or more specific capacity thresholds. A method of implementing rechargeable battery cells into product manufacturing and qualifying the rechargeable battery cells, and deploying those of the rechargeable battery cells qualified into a first classification of the two or more classifications into the product.
Li 7 La 3 Zr 2 O 12 (LLZO) garnet-based oxides are a promising class of solid electrolytes used as the separator in all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs). While LLZO is considered to have a wide electrochemical stability window, its intrinsic stability in contact with lithium metal is not sufficiently well understood, and there is still a debate on the key question of whether LLZO does or does not form passivation layers before and during cycling. Utilizing both in situ and operando X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques, in this work we reveal the presence of a kinetic barrier to the reduction of LLZO by Li metal, with the extent of oxygen-deficient interphase (ODI) formation depending sensitively on the energetics of Li metal arriving at the Li vertical bar LLZO interface. Despite the clear presence of a kinetic barrier to reduction, the electrochemical response of the Li vertical bar LLZO interface is unchanged by the presence of the ODI, indicating that ODI formation during electrochemical cycling does not hinder charge transfer across the Li vertical bar LLZO interface. Overall, these results reveal that the reactivity of LLZO with Li metal depends not only on the material properties of the adjoining phases (i.e., surface purity and active contact) and their resulting thermodynamic stability but also on the energy input at the interface and the resulting reaction kinetics. Furthermore, the presence of a kinetic barrier to reduction highlights the additional complexities governing the reactivity of solid-state interfaces in ASSBs and underscores the importance of operando characterization of interfacial stability to design more robust, high-performance protection strategies for solid electrolytes in contact with reactive electrodes.
Microporous polymers feature shape-persistent free volume elements (FVEs), which are permeated by small molecules and ions when used as membranes for chemical separations, water purification, fuel cells, and batteries. It remains a significant challenge to identify FVEs with analyte specificity, due to difficulties in generating microporous polymer libraries with sufficient diversity for screening their properties. Here, we describe a diversity-oriented synthetic (DOS) strategy for microporous polymer membranes from which we identified those whose FVEs serve as solid solvation cages for lithium ions (Li + ). Furthermore, key elements of our strategy included diversification of bis(catechol)-type monomers via multi-component Mannich reactions to introduce Li+-coordinating functionality within individual FVEs, topology-enforcing polymerizations for generating macromolecular skeletal diversity for networking FVEs into different pore architectures, and several classes of on-polymer reactions for diversifying pore geometries and dielectric properties. Lead candidate polymer membranes featuring explicit ion solvation cages exhibited both higher ionic conductivity and higher cation transference number than control membranes where FVEs were aspecific, which indicates conventional bounds for membrane permeability and selectivity for ion transport can be overcome.4 These advantages are tied to enhanced Li + partitioning from the electrolyte when the cages are present, higher diffusion barriers for anions within the pores, and network-enforced restrictions on the number of solvent molecules bound to Li+ by comparison to the bulk electrolyte, which reduces the effective mass of the working ion. Such membranes show promise as anode-stabilizing interlayers in high-voltage lithium-metal batteries for electric mobility.
R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Established methods that typify R2R include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, a means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations, though the ink processing, coating and drying processes, to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product.
R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto substrates or membranes that are on moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final product. Established methods that typify R2R processing include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating, and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes and electrolytes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials for decarbonization and air and water filtration. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, the means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research is needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations and the coating and heated drying processes to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product.
Sealed heat sterilizable high impact resistant battery for space missions, grafting acrylic acid and polyethylene by irradiation for separator
The project team conducted cutting-edge battery research on electrode materials, electrolyte formulations, and cell designs for next-generation rechargeable lithium metal batteries designed for high energy density and safety. The research has focused on two separate but related technologies: 1) a high-temperature lithium metal battery designed for extreme environments, and 2) a high-energy lithium metal battery designed for more general applications (including aerospace, defense, transportation, electronics, etc.). We took these projects from the conceptual stage (an idea on paper) all the way to high performing lab prototypes and early commercial-format pouch and cylindrical cell prototypes. Both chemistries were improved substantially in terms of materials compatibility, lithium metal cyclability, high-voltage stability, high-temperature stability, and scalability.
The focus of this paper will be on the thermal balance testing for the Operationally Responsive Space Standard Bus Battery. The Standard Bus thermal design required that the battery be isolated from the bus itself. This required the battery to have its own thermal control, including heaters and a radiator surface. Since the battery was not ready for testing during the overall bus thermal balance testing, a separate test was conducted to verify the thermal design for the battery. This paper will discuss in detail, the test set up, test procedure, and results from this test. Additionally this paper will consider the methods taken to determine the heat dissipation of the battery during charge and discharge. It seems that the heat dissipation for Lithium Ion batteries is relatively unknown and hard to quantify. The methods used during test and the post test analysis to estimate the heat dissipation of the battery will be discussed.
Battery charger for Atmosphere Explorer B spacecraft - packaging in aluminum frame rectangular configuration with three separate compartments
Electrodialysis (ED) is a membrane separation technique that has been well-established in various applications such as desalination, drinking water production, wastewater treatment, and lithium salt production. A limited number of studies have explored its application in lithium salt production, especially from secondary resources like wastewater. This study investigated a route to recover lithium from wastewater generated from the recycling of end-of-life Li-ion batteries. Two electrodialysis methods, namely standard electrodialysis (ED) and bipolar-membrane electrodialysis (BPED), were combined to concentrate lithium ions and convert them to lithium hydroxide (LiOH), a valuable product that can be fed back into the supply chain for manufacturing Li-ion batteries. Lithium (Li⁺) concentration in recycling wastewater was successfully increased by 58% using ED and converted to LiOH (>96% purity) with a further increase in Li⁺ concentration by 67% using BPED. The Coulombic efficiency of the experiments was 91.0 and 92.2%, with specific energy consumption of 1 and 2.5 kWh/kg, and a production rate of 1.01 and 0.14 kg/h/m 2 for the ED and BPED processes, respectively. In addition, preliminary techno-economic and environmental impact analyses show a significant improvement (GHG emission reduction by 77% and total energy reduction by 53%) by producing LiOH via electrodialysis compared to conventional lithium production via brine extraction. The process was assessed to be beneficial for lithium extraction from secondary resources and to enhance overall battery recycling efforts.
Aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) nanopowder is spin-coated onto both sides of commercial polypropene separator to create artificial solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) and artificial cathode electrolyte interface (CEI) in potassium metal batteries (KMBs). Here, this significantly enhances the stability, including of KMBs with Prussian Blue (PB) cathodes. For example, symmetric cells are stable after 1,000 cycles at 0.5 mA/cm 2 –0.5 mAh/cm 2 and 3.0 mA/cm 2 –0.5 mAh/cm 2 . Alumina modified separators promote electrolyte wetting and increase ionic conductivity (0.59 vs. 0.2 mS/cm) and transference number (0.81 vs. 0.23). Cryo-stage focused ion beam (cryo-FIB) analysis of cycled modified anode demonstrates dense and planar electrodeposits, versus unmodified baseline consisting of metal filaments (dendrites) interspersed with pores and SEI. Alumina-modified CEI also suppresses elemental Fe crossover and reduces cathode cracking. Mesoscale modeling of metal – SEI interactions captures crucial role of intrinsic heterogeneities, illustrating how artificial SEI affects reaction current distribution, conductivity and morphological stability.
Various steps followed in analyzing the electrolyte, separator, and electrodes are reviewed. Specific emphasis is given to scanning electron microscopic and metallographic analysis of the plates. Cadmium migration is defined, its effects and causes are examined, and methods for its reduction in cells are suggested.
Thin electrodeposited films of calcium and magnesium hydroxide as separators in silver-cadmium cells
We report, anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with high permselectivity, chemical stability and mechanical robustness are a key enabling technology for a variety of electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems such as fuel cells, redox flow batteries and water electrolyzers. Herein we examine well understood chemically stable triblock co-polymer AEMs derived by the chloromethylation (CM-) and subsequent trimethylamine (TMA) functionalization of polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-block-polystyrene (SEBS) block co-polymers. We show using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) that the introduction of a hydrophobic reinforcement matrix disrupts phase segregation and decreases ionic domain sizes in these AEM separators. The reinforcement matrix simultaneously causes the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the reinforced separator to increase by almost 600% compared to the unreinforced form, while maintaining comparable elasticity (ca. 500% elongation at break). Such reinforced r-SEBS30-TMA separators enable electrode-decoupled redox flow batteries (ED-RFBs) with significantly improved lifetimes by decreasing per cycle capacity fade from 0.5% to <0.05%. This 10× improvement in operando permselectivity opens the door to ED-RFBs employing inexpensive elemental actives achieving decades-long usable lifespans.