German engineers develop new process technology to reduce the cost of lithium batteries

Engineers at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie in Germany used a physicochemical effect to improve the electrode, which greatly reduced the technical expenditure and required production time, and filled the lithium-ion battery with electrolyte. Increased total battery production and reduced investment costs. The electrodes in modern batteries are porous, like sponges. However, unlike household sponges, its pore size is on the micrometer scale. Therefore, such an electrode has a very large surface area, providing a large amount of space for charging and discharging in a chemical process. It is necessary to develop some batteries for electric vehicles, which have a larger stroke and are faster to charge.

According to the engineer, these holes must be filled with complete electrolyte to optimize operation. This liquid electrolyte is a transport medium in which charged ions can diffuse between the anode and cathode of the cell. Without the electrolyte, there is no internal charge balance and no current flows out. However, these materials are used in conventional high-energy batteries, and in the automotive industry, the surface wettability of the electrodes is shown to be due to such liquid electrolytes.

Therefore, a large amount of time and expense has been spent in battery production, so far, in order to allow electrolytes to enter the smallest holes, and if possible, to improve battery performance. The introduction of liquid into this material requires high temperatures in an expensive and time consuming vacuum or storage process.

Engineers say their new process can reduce this time span from hours to minutes. In order to achieve this amazing effect, they rely on nature. Using a mechanochemical technique, the electrode is modified so that the electrolyte is drawn into the battery as if the water had been drawn into the tree. As a result, the electrolyte diffuses very quickly into the bulk material, and because of this principle, battery performance data is much better.

It is understood that Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, using this large innovation, is expected to carry out a series of partial improvements to further develop the entire system.