• Sherrell, Peter
• Hollenkamp, Anthony
• Parsa, Mehrdad
• Ellis, Amanda
• Gotama, Januar

Abstract

Carbon-coating of the active anode material is a critical process for ensuring long term cycle-life for lithium battery anodes. This report details the current state-of-the-art coating approaches for industrial battery anode production and highlights future methods and opportunities that may become relevant in the future.Pyrolysis of petroleum- or coal-tar pitch produces carbon-coatings on graphite, silicon, or graphite-silicon composites with excellent homogeneity and relatively low cost. As such, it is the most widely used approach to achieve a carbon coating. This process, however, produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas by-products, and is becoming less viable due to economic taxes and sanctions on these types of emissions. Alternative materials, including sugars, polymers, and nano-carbons are highlighted as potential future coating sources. Various approaches such as in-situ coating and composite formation, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), and mechanical mixing are discussed as alternatives to pyrolysis.Despite the relative abundance of coal, there are currently no facilities within Australia to undertake coal-tar pitch pyrolysis, or indeed any carbon-coating at scale, for battery anodes. This absence represents a future commercial opportunity, particularly as battery manufacturing capability is developed within Australia. The Future Battery Industries-Cooperative Research Centres (FBI-CRC) “Super Anode” project’s objective is to develop a strategy to bring into production LIB anodes from mined natural graphite. This report summarises the current processes and innovation related to the carbon -coating of natural graphite.

Topics

• pyrolysis
• impedance spectroscopy
• polymer
• Carbon
• laser emission spectroscopy
• composite
• Silicon
• Lithium
• chemical vapor deposition
• coating method
• mechanical mixing