Roll to roll plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition for advanced battery electrode manufacturing of Si dominant electrodes for Li-ion and Beyond Li applications

The military, as well as the private sector have an enormous and rapidly growing demand for portable energy storage in the form of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. However, conventional Li-ion batteries use anodes where the active material is graphite. Graphite has a number of problems, including that over 90% of graphite passes through China, and graphite cannot provide the energy density, fast charging, and safety required in many military and private sector applications. A far better alternative to graphite as the active material in anodes is silicon, which is refined right in the United States. GDI has developed a manufacturing process based on plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) that is capable of producing 100% silicon anodes with no graphite, and avoids mixing, slurry coating, drying, and calendaring altogether. As a result, GDIÆs process requires no powders, solvents or binders, which leads to a safer manufacturing process, eliminates a significant waste stream and results in a more energy dense electrode.