2022 R&D 100 Award for RapidCure: High-Speed Electron Beam Processing of Battery Electrodes

  • Du, Zhijia (Recipient), Janke, Christopher (Recipient), Wood, David L. (Recipient), Li, Jianlin (Recipient) & Daniel, Claus (Recipient)

Prize: Honorary award

Description

This technology also received the Silver Award in the Special Recognition: Green Tech category.

In typical lithium-ion battery electrode production, materials are mixed in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone, an organic solvent, to form a slurry during manufacturing. There are several drawbacks to this method: the solvent is toxic and explosive, the process requires long-drying ovens and solvents must be recovered after manufacturing.

To address the disadvantages of this production process, ORNL researchers developed a cleaner and more efficient method to manufacture electrodes. A high-speed electron beam essentially replaces the long-drying ovens to evaporate the solvent, serving as the energy source to chemically polymerize and crosslink small molecules into high molecular weight polymers.

Additionally, this technology produces electrodes faster — seconds to minutes compared with the solvent method — and reduces the energy and equipment necessary for manufacturing. When the process is complete, no recycling unit is required, unlike the mandatory recovery when using the solvent.

Funding for this project was provided by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

ORNL’s Zhijia Du led the development. ORNL’s Chris Janke, David Wood and Jianlin Li and Carrier Global's Claus Daniel also contributed.

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