Power Tool: Investigating Battery Material with Litesizer DLS

As the production of green electricity is exploding worldwide, so is the demand for more efficient electricity storage methods. The global market for batteries is growing fast, particularly as high power and high capacity cells are needed for large scale applications such as automotive and household. In parallel, the demand for miniaturization and high performance in personal electronic devices is not abating. In this context, the lithium-ion technology is quickly gaining pace over older energy storage technologies such as lead-acid.
The electrodes of lithium-ion batteries consist in a mixture of active materials in particulate form. During electrode production, the raw materials are processed into slurry before being deposited onto current collectors. The electrodes’ electrochemical properties depend both on the mixing ratio of the active materials and on the particle size distribution. Optimizing the particle size of the raw materials will thus ensure that the diffusion of the lithium ions is optimal and that electrode lithiation and delithiation are rapid and constant. In addition, checking particle size is also required to investigate the possible presence of agglomerates, as these might negatively impact electrode performance (1) (2).
In this application report, we have investigated two nanomaterials used for the manufacturing of new generation lithium-ion batteries, carbon black and crystalline silicon. Carbon black is a conductive carbon powder obtained by the incomplete combustion of certain petroleum products. It is widely used as additive in the cathode to increase its electrical conductivity and optimize its performance (3), but is also being investigated as potential anode material (4). Crystalline silicon is a promising alternative to conventional anode materials, offering energy densities ten times higher than the current standards. Its commercialization is however still hampered by the fact that it is subject to large volume variations upon lithiation and delithiation (5).
We demonstrate that the Litesizer DLS can accurately determine the particle size distribution of these two electrode materials using dynamic light scattering.