SILICON/GRAPHITE/GRAPHENE HYBRID ANODES VIA AIR CONTROLLED ELECTROSPRAYING FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERIES

Joshi, Yash Milind

SILICON/GRAPHITE/GRAPHENE HYBRID ANODES VIA AIR CONTROLLED ELECTROSPRAYING FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERIES

Abstract

Lithium ion batteries (LIB) have been the front runners to offer solutions to energy storage and electronic applications. The current state of art LIB’s are unable to satisfy the demands for EV applications due to their low energy density. To improve the energy density of LIB’s Silicon has been most promising due its extraordinary theoretical capacity However Silicon anode expands 2-3 times its original size while taking in Lithium ions for their storage. This leads to pulverization and loss of electrical contact of the electrode material leading to severe capacity decay. Thus mitigation of this volume expansion has been a stumbling block for its commercialization. In this work various strategies like an effective assembly of Silicon/ Graphite/ Graphene via Air controlled-Electrospray are utilized to overcome this issue. Moreover, using facile and scalable ways to create mesopores as well as macropores to accommodate the silicon volume expansion is also investigated. The results demonstrates capacity several times higher than the traditional LIB’s as well as stable capacity over several cycles of deep discharge. The results show that the different modes of failure for silicon based anodes are successfully addressed and the proposed assembly by the means of air-controlled electrospray is scalable and economic fabrication technique.

Description

122 pages

Date Issued

2019-12

Keywords

air controlled electrospray; composite; graphene; graphite; Lithium ion batteries; silicon

Committee Chair

Joo, Yong L.

Committee Member

Hanrath, Tobias

Degree Discipline

Chemical Engineering

Degree Name

M.S., Chemical Engineering

Degree Level

Master of Science

Types

dissertation or thesis