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Evaluation of Scalable Porous Si‐Rich Si/C Composites with Low Volume Expansion in Coin Cells to Prismatic Cell Formats
Author(s) -
Müller Verena,
Bernhard Rebecca,
Wegener Jennifer,
Pfeiffer Jürgen,
Rössler Stefan,
Scurtu Rares-George,
Memm Michaela,
Danzer Michael A.,
Wohlfahrt-Mehrens Margret
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.202000217
Subject(s) - materials science , anode , composite number , battery (electricity) , volume (thermodynamics) , pouch , porosity , composite material , swelling , cycling , nanotechnology , electrode , chemistry , quantum mechanics , anatomy , history , archaeology , medicine , power (physics) , physics
Li‐ion battery cells on the basis of Si‐containing anodes suffer from their large volume expansion of up to 300%, impeding their extensive application in the automotive field. Herein, the synthesis of a Si‐rich Si/C composite is introduced. The implemented porosity of the composite has a buffering effect on the Si volume changes during cycling. The scalability of the material from lab‐scale to industrial‐scale batch sizes as well as from coin cell (<5 mAh), to pouch cell (≈0.75 Ah), and to prismatic (PHEV) cells (≈26 Ah) is demonstrated. The performance of the pouch cells and PHEV cells is further improved by cycling under an external mechanical pressure. The irreversible swelling of the pouch and the PHEV cells stays below 6% during cycling. Reproducible aging and swelling behavior of different cell types is observed and investigated in detail. The low irreversible volume increase is confirmed by X‐ray computer tomography (CT) measurements of the PHEV cells before and after cycling.