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POSTECH researchers have developed a breakthrough lithium-ion battery with microsilicon particles and a gel polymer electrolyte that significantly increases energy density and stability. This innovation addresses silicon expansion issues and could lead to electric vehicles with longer battery life and efficiency.
The 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) focused attention on breakthrough developments in AI and healthcare. However, battery technology is at the heart of these innovations, enabling increased power efficiency. Importantly, this technology is most intensively applied in electric vehicles.
Current EVs can travel about 700 km on a single charge, but researchers are aiming for a battery range of 1,000 km. Researchers are actively exploring the use of silicon, known for its high storage capacity, as a negative electrode material in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. But despite its potential, silicon’s practical application remains a puzzle that researchers are grappling with.
A breakthrough in silicon-based battery technology
Professor Soojin Park from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), PhD students Dr. Minjun Je and Dr. Hye Bin Son will be featured. They have cracked the code and developed a pocket-friendly and robust next-generation high-energy-density lithium-ion battery system using microsilicon particles and gel-polymer electrolytes.This work was recently published in a magazine cutting edge science.
Challenges of silicon as a battery material
Adopting silicon as a battery material has its challenges. Silicon expands more than three times during charging and returns to its original size during discharge, which has a significant impact on battery efficiency. Utilizing nano-sized silicon (10-9m) It partially addresses the problem, but advanced manufacturing processes are complex and astronomically expensive, making budget planning difficult.
Covalent bond formation between microsilicon and gel electrolyte by electron beam process. Credit: POSTECH
In contrast, micro-sized silicon (10-6m) is very practical in terms of cost and energy density. However, the expansion problem of larger silicon particles becomes more pronounced during cell operation, limiting its use as an anode material.
Gel polymer electrolyte innovation
The research team applied a gel polymer electrolyte to develop an economical yet stable silicon-based battery system. The electrolyte in a lithium-ion battery is a critical component that facilitates the movement of ions between the cathode and anode. Unlike traditional liquid electrolytes, gel electrolytes exist in a solid or gel state and are characterized by an elastic polymer structure that has greater stability than liquid electrolytes.
Improving battery performance with microsilicon
The research team used an electron beam to form covalent bonds between microsilicon particles and a gel electrolyte. These covalent bonds play the role of dispersing the internal stress caused by the volume expansion during operation of lithium-ion batteries, buffering the volume change of microsilicon and increasing the structural stability.
The results were remarkable. The cell showed stable performance even when using microsilicon particles (5 μm) that are 100 times larger than those used in conventional nanosilicon negative electrodes. Furthermore, the silicon gel electrolyte system developed by the research team exhibited similar ionic conductivity to conventional batteries using liquid electrolytes, with an approximately 40% increase in energy density. Additionally, the team’s system has great value due to its ready-to-apply and simple manufacturing process.
Professor Soojin Park emphasized: “We used microsilicon anodes and we get stable batteries. This work brings us closer to real high-energy-density lithium-ion battery systems.”
Reference: “Formation of electron beam-induced covalent bonds for stable high-energy density silicon microparticle anodes” Minjun Je, Hye Bin Son, Yu-Jin Han, Hangeol Jang, Sungho Kim, Dongjuo kim, Jieun Kang, Jin- Hyeok Jeong, Chihyun Hwang, Gyujin Song, Hyun-Kon Song, Tae Sung Ha, Soojin Park, January 17, 2024; cutting edge science.
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202305298
This study was supported by the Independent Investigator Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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