Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing of Hierarchical Li-Ion Battery Electrodes

Research in the field of micro and nanotechnology has led to the development of materials with fundamentally new or improved functionality, which have the potential to revolutionise electronics, drug delivery, water purification, and energy storage. These scientific discoveries can help address many of the grand challenges our society is facing, but unfortunately, too few of these new materials are implemented in real commercial devices. This is not because of a lack of interest or commercial potential, but often because there are no manufacturing methods available that allow for controlled processing of these materials at scale. This project aims to address this challenge by developing advanced nano and microstructures directly on a scalable Roll-to-Roll manufacturing platform, rather than considering manufacturing as an after-thought. This will be achieved by following a methodical approach, where material organisation is optimised from the bottom-up, starting with the nanoscale chemical material composition, followed by the microscale particle morphology, and finally their large area coating using Roll-to-Roll manufacturing. This hierarchical material build-up will be achieved by taking advantage of emerging scientific insights in robust self-assembly processes, combined with novel coating processes to allow for precise control over the particle flow and assembly on Roll-to-Roll. Our Roll-to-Roll process will be optimised to manufacture Li-Ion batteries with new form factors that allow the enhancement of their volumetric performance. This project will demonstrate for the first time how complex hierarchical battery electrodes can be manufactured with a continuous process. These batteries are important to support the EU’s strong automotive industry as it transitions to electric vehicles, and therefore this project will contribute to the EU economy as well as to the de-carbonisation of our society.