New 3D printing method gives boost to lithium-ion batteries

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Engineers in the US have developed a 3D printing method that could lead to vastly improved capacity and charge-discharge rates for lithium-ion batteries.

3D printing method
SEM images of 3D printed electrodes for Li-ion batteries used for electrochemical cycling in the researchers’ study. Image taken from top of microlattice electrodes with height of about 250mm (Credit: Rahul Panat and Mohammad Sadeq Saleh)

Lithium-ion battery capacity can be vastly improved if their electrodes contain microscale pores and channels. To date, the internal geometry that produced the best porous electrodes through additive was interdigitated, which allows lithium to transport through the battery efficiently during charging and discharging, but is not optimal.

Now, Rahul Panat, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and a team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon in collaboration with Missouri University of Science and Technology have developed a new method of 3D printing battery electrodes that creates a 3D microlattice structure with controlled porosity. Their results are published in Additive Manufacturing.

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