TSLA dry electrode technology helps breakthrough -Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment
Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Huang Junzhi) news, affected by the new crown epidemic, the much-anticipated TSLA "Battery Day" (Battery Day) has been forced to postpone. A few days ago, TSLA finally announced that the 2020 General Meeting of Shareholders and the "Battery Day" event will be held on September 22. Both events will be held at the TSLA California facility and will be live streamed online.(Lithium - Ion Battery Equipment)
What kind of surprises will this TSLA bring? In a word, according to the Tesmanian website, this "Battery Day" will focus on improving energy density and reducing costs. Maxwell dry electrode technology and the Roadrunner project will be the two highlights of the day.
Maxwell Dry Electrode Technology
About a year ago, TSLA acquired Maxwell Technologies (Maxwell Technologies), and one of the important technical reasons can be attributed to "fibrilization (Fibrilization)". This provides a new way to make lithium batteries, the dry cell electrode technology.
Maxwell's dry electrode process forms a self-supporting film of the negative or positive material by fibrillating PTFE (Teflon) mixed with particles of the active negative or positive material. And most critically, the technology will make the battery's negative and positive electrodes solvent-free. Traditional lithium battery manufacturing requires the use of solvents with binder materials, and NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) is one of the common solvents. Solvents are toxic and must be carefully recovered, purified and reused. And a huge, expensive and complicated electrode coater.
In addition, the problem of "capacity loss at the first cycle" is prevalent in all common types of lithium batteries. Specifically, when the battery is full of electrolyte and is charged for the first time, some of the lithium ions of the positive electrode material are consumed by the reaction between the negative electrode, the electrolyte and the lithium ions. This parasitic reaction forms SEI (Solid Electrolyte Interphase, solid electrolyte interface). The SEI is an important part of the battery because it prevents the carbon in the electrolyte and the anode from reacting. But the problem is that once the first charge is performed, some of the lithium ions returning from the negative electrode to the positive electrode are lost during discharge, resulting in a "first cycle capacity loss".
The solution seems to be simple, just add extra lithium to make up the gaps used to form the SEI. But it is worth noting that the lithium added here must be lithium metal, or lithium is added to the graphite of the negative electrode. But in the presence of a solvent, lithium metal and carbon mixed with lithium metal do not fuse well with each other, usually accompanied by strong reactions such as smoke, flames and noise. Therefore, the problem has not been well resolved. However, since Maxwell supplies a dry electrode fabrication process that allows for the addition of extra lithium, this problem is solved.
To sum up, the Maxwell dry electrode technology can not only improve the performance of the battery, but also greatly reduce the battery manufacturing cost of TSLA. This is especially important because cost is one of the biggest constraints on rising TSLAs. In addition, because additional lithium can be added to reduce the "first cycle capacity loss", the battery capacity and energy density will also be improved accordingly.
It was previously reported that TSLA will reveal details of its "million-mile" battery at its "Battery Day" event. It is reported that the "million mile" battery uses a new generation of "single crystal" NMC532 cathode and a new advanced electrolyte, which can keep electric vehicles running for 1 million miles (about 1.61 million kilometers). It is rumored that TSLA intends to use the battery first in the Model 3 my country version, which will be mass-produced in early 2021, and then land in North America and other markets.
Roadrunner project
Six months after acquiring Maxwell, reports emerged that TSLA was secretly advancing its self-built electric project, "Roadrunner," with plans to adopt a "machine for machine" strategy to mass-produce higher-volume-density, cheaper vehicles Battery. In June, TSLA CEO Elon Musk confirmed the rumor, saying "Battery Day" would include a tour of the battery production system.
TSLA's own batteries will make high-volume battery production relatively cheap, making it possible for electric vehicles to be highly profitable. The TSLA and Panasonic partnership has already resulted in industry-leading battery costs, but the automaker hopes to cut costs even further by making its own batteries.
What kind of surprises will this TSLA bring? In a word, according to the Tesmanian website, this "Battery Day" will focus on improving energy density and reducing costs. Maxwell dry electrode technology and the Roadrunner project will be the two highlights of the day.
Maxwell Dry Electrode Technology
About a year ago, TSLA acquired Maxwell Technologies (Maxwell Technologies), and one of the important technical reasons can be attributed to "fibrilization (Fibrilization)". This provides a new way to make lithium batteries, the dry cell electrode technology.
Maxwell's dry electrode process forms a self-supporting film of the negative or positive material by fibrillating PTFE (Teflon) mixed with particles of the active negative or positive material. And most critically, the technology will make the battery's negative and positive electrodes solvent-free. Traditional lithium battery manufacturing requires the use of solvents with binder materials, and NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone) is one of the common solvents. Solvents are toxic and must be carefully recovered, purified and reused. And a huge, expensive and complicated electrode coater.
In addition, the problem of "capacity loss at the first cycle" is prevalent in all common types of lithium batteries. Specifically, when the battery is full of electrolyte and is charged for the first time, some of the lithium ions of the positive electrode material are consumed by the reaction between the negative electrode, the electrolyte and the lithium ions. This parasitic reaction forms SEI (Solid Electrolyte Interphase, solid electrolyte interface). The SEI is an important part of the battery because it prevents the carbon in the electrolyte and the anode from reacting. But the problem is that once the first charge is performed, some of the lithium ions returning from the negative electrode to the positive electrode are lost during discharge, resulting in a "first cycle capacity loss".
The solution seems to be simple, just add extra lithium to make up the gaps used to form the SEI. But it is worth noting that the lithium added here must be lithium metal, or lithium is added to the graphite of the negative electrode. But in the presence of a solvent, lithium metal and carbon mixed with lithium metal do not fuse well with each other, usually accompanied by strong reactions such as smoke, flames and noise. Therefore, the problem has not been well resolved. However, since Maxwell supplies a dry electrode fabrication process that allows for the addition of extra lithium, this problem is solved.
To sum up, the Maxwell dry electrode technology can not only improve the performance of the battery, but also greatly reduce the battery manufacturing cost of TSLA. This is especially important because cost is one of the biggest constraints on rising TSLAs. In addition, because additional lithium can be added to reduce the "first cycle capacity loss", the battery capacity and energy density will also be improved accordingly.
It was previously reported that TSLA will reveal details of its "million-mile" battery at its "Battery Day" event. It is reported that the "million mile" battery uses a new generation of "single crystal" NMC532 cathode and a new advanced electrolyte, which can keep electric vehicles running for 1 million miles (about 1.61 million kilometers). It is rumored that TSLA intends to use the battery first in the Model 3 my country version, which will be mass-produced in early 2021, and then land in North America and other markets.
Roadrunner project
Six months after acquiring Maxwell, reports emerged that TSLA was secretly advancing its self-built electric project, "Roadrunner," with plans to adopt a "machine for machine" strategy to mass-produce higher-volume-density, cheaper vehicles Battery. In June, TSLA CEO Elon Musk confirmed the rumor, saying "Battery Day" would include a tour of the battery production system.
TSLA's own batteries will make high-volume battery production relatively cheap, making it possible for electric vehicles to be highly profitable. The TSLA and Panasonic partnership has already resulted in industry-leading battery costs, but the automaker hopes to cut costs even further by making its own batteries.
