High power density & energy density Li-ion battery with aluminum foam enhanced electrode: Fabrication and simulation

Compared with aluminum foil (Al foil), the three-dimensional (3D) aluminum foam (Al foam) has the characteristics of 3D interconnected metal wires and through-hole structure with high specific surface area, which exhibits great potential for application in high-power energy storage devices. In this work, 3D Al foam-based and Al foil-based cathode sheets were fabricated and assembled into pouch cells. In-situ XRD was employed to analyze the electrochemical reaction behavior of the two types of porous electrodes. The 3D Al foam-based cathode demonstrated faster electron transfer and lithium-ion diffusion as compared to the Al foil-based electrode, which is helpful for a uniform electrochemical reaction and decreases the electrochemical polarization. Electrochemical simulations and porous electrode models were built to understand these phenomena. The Al foam-based LiFePO4 batteries exhibit much better power and energy performance than Al foil-based LiFePO4 battery. The power density of the Al foam pouch cells is 7.0–7.7 kW/L when the energy density is 230–367 Wh/L, which is the highest power and energy density among reported Al foam-based devices. The new findings open up opportunities for the development of high-power and high-energy-density commercial batteries.