Analysis of solvent-free lithium-ion electrodes formed under high pressure and heat

Dry electrode manufacturing holds promise for reducing the time and energy required to produce lithium-ion cells. However, this method which uses no solvents has required slow and specialized processes such as dry spraying and electrostatic spraying, which has prevented adoption of the technology in commercial applications. To explore an alternative way to produce dry electrodes, a heated press was used to adhere the LiFePO4 active material onto the current collector. It was found that at high temperature and pressure, a dry Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) electrode could retain 91% state of health after 250 cycles compared to a standard wet LFP electrode, which retained 93% state of health. It should be possible to use this method in a high throughput, heated calendaring roller setup to efficiently produce dry electrodes for Li-ion batteries.