The Manufacture and Investigation of 3D Current Collectors in a Lithium Ion Battery Obtained by Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Abstract

The use of additive manufacturing to fabricate current collectors with increased surface area opens new opportunities for controlling electrode morphology, improving conductivity, and thereby boosting the overall performance of batteries. This can be achieved by increasing the contact area between the active mass and the current collector. This paper focuses on the investigation of 3D current collectors with an enhanced surface area for cathodes obtained by laser powder bed fusion. The quality and dimensional accuracy of the 3D current collector structures as well as the electrical characteristics and longevity of batteries were analyzed in this study. It has been demonstrated that the utilization of printing parameters comprising a laser power of 200 W, a scanning speed of 500 mm/s, and a hatch distance of 0.25 mm, with a layer thickness of 0.03 mm, results in a decrease in the number of defects in the 3D current collector. In the first cycle, the capacitance characteristics exhibited discharge capacities of 189.79 mAh/g for Al-f and 192.06 mAh/g for AlSi10Mg. The Coulomb efficiencies for the samples were 86 and 92.5%, respectively. Anisotropy of conductive properties arises during the printing process, which must be considered when designing the 3D current collectors, as it may have an impact on the capacitive and cyclic characteristics of the samples.