Enhancement of the wettability of graphite-based lithium-ion battery anodes by selective laser surface modification using low energy nanosecond pulses

The electrolyte filling process of battery cells is one of the time-critical bottlenecks in cell production. Wetting is of particular importance here, since only completely wetted electrode sections are working. In order to accelerate and facilitate this process, the authors of this study developed a method to significantly increase the wettability of graphite-based anodes by a laser surface modification using low energy nanosecond laser pulses. The anode surface microstructure was evaluated by means of white-light interferometry and scanning electron microscopy. The assessment of wettability was done by drop test and capillary rise test of the liquid electrolyte. The results show that there is a predominantly selective ablation process for laser energy inputs below 2 J/m by which the graphite active material remains unaffected and the binder material is decomposed. The observed increase in surface roughness correlates with the increasing wettability. Investigations using Raman spectroscopy showed that laser treatment leads to a damage on the crystalline structure of the graphite particle surface. However, treating an entire anode including 6 wt% binder and conductive carbon black has shown that the overall amorphous content of the anodes surface can be reduced by 32% through treating the surface with a laser energy of 1.29 J/m. Up to that point, which is the resulting parameter range for the selective process, it is possible to ablate the amorphous binder and carbon black phase coevally exposing graphite particles while keeping their crystalline structure. Exceeding that range, ablation of the whole anode composite dominates and amorphization of the graphite surface occurs. The electrode's capacity was tested on half-cells in coin cell format. For the whole laser parameter range investigated, the anodes capacity matches the mass loss caused by laser ablation. No additional capacity loss was observed due to amorphization of the exterior graphite particle's surface.

Automated summary

The researchers developed a method to improve the wettability of graphite-based anodes through laser surface modification. By selectively ablating binder material while preserving the graphite active material, they were able to increase surface roughness and enhance wettability. Raman spectroscopy revealed damage to the crystalline structure of graphite particles, but overall amorphous content on the anode surface was reduced by laser treatment. The capacity of the electrode remained stable across the investigated laser parameter range.