3D Structures in Battery Materials

Efficient lithium-ion batteries will play an important role within the development of future mobile and stationary applications such as portable microsystems, high power electric vehicles or high energy storage devices. All applications strongly require an improvement of the materials used in electrochemical cells in order to increase stability, power and energy density as well as cell lifetime. To challenge this demand, the development of future cell systems is mainly focused on the composition of solid electrolytes as well as on powerful rechargeable lithium-ion intercalation electrodes consisting out of nano-composite materials. In this work, thin film electrodes based on lithium manganese oxide compounds were deposited by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering on steel and silicon substrates. Within a new technical approach, UV-laser process technologies using a wavelength of 248 nm were applied in order to form three-dimensional cathode structures. Rapid laser annealing processes operating at 940 nm were performed to adjust an appropriate crystalline phase. Phase and structural analysis was performed using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical testing. The principle set-up of a three-dimensional all-solid state cell was shown by sputtering of lithium vanadium silicon oxide electrolyte and aluminium anode material on top of the lithium manganese oxide 3D structures. DOI: 10.2961/jlmn.2012.01.0019