Scalable process for application of stabilized lithium metal powder in Li-ion batteries

A simple solution processing method is developed to achieve a uniform and scalable stabilized lithium metal powder (SLMP) coating on a Li-ion negative electrode. A solvent and binder system for the SLMP coating is developed, including the selection of solvent, polymer binder, and optimization of polymer concentration. The optimized binder solution is a 1% concentration of polymer binder in xylene; a mixture of poly(styrene-co-butadiene) rubber (SBR) and polystyrene (PS) is chosen as the polymer binder. Results show that long-sustained, uniformly dispersed SLMP suspension can be achieved with the optimized binder solution. The uniform SLMP coating can be achieved using a simple “doctor blade” coating method, and the resulting SLMP coating can be firmly glued on the anode surface. By using SLMP to prelithiate the negative electrode, improvements in electrochemical performances are demonstrated in both graphite/NMC and SiO/NMC full cells.