Co-extrusion for Structured Battery Electrodes
Novel co-extrusion printing technique significantly improves battery performance
PARC offers a proven co-extrusion printing technique that can enhance both the energy and power densities of batteries. A cost-effective way to manufacture structured electrodes, this technique can be applied to both cathodes and anodes for most battery chemistries.
One of the challenges in transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy is the availability of cost-effective and portable energy storage. For example, the development of more efficient batteries at low cost is crucial for the growth of the electric vehicle market. However, given the limited space available within a battery cell, performance is typically optimized for either power or energy density. With typical monolithic battery electrodes, increased power requires greater conductivity, thereby resulting in less available volume for energy storage.
By structuring an electrode with conductive regions that are interleaved with storage regions, ion flow paths can be shortened without compromising capacity. PARC’s innovative CoEx technique can fabricate such structures at high speed. The relative dimensions can be changed to achieve optimal performance in terms of both power and energy, customizing the benefits for batteries based on their specific application.
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