The drying process of lithium-ion battery electrodes is one of the key processes for manufacturing electrodes with high surface homogeneity and is one of the most energy-consuming stages. The choice of the drying parameters has a significant impact on the electrode properties and the production efficiency.
Scalable dry electrode process is essential for the sustainable manufacturing of the lithium based batteries. Here, the authors propose a dry press-coating technique to fabricate a robust and flexible high loading electrode for lithium pouch cells.
In recent years, initial investigations of electrode drying using lasers have been carried out and government-funded research projects like ExLaLib, [ 42, 43 ] LaserScale, [ 44 ] and Ideel [ 45, 46 ] look into the laser drying technology for lithium-ion battery electrodes.
In the study of drying techniques for lithium batteries, the key point is the relationship between the amount of electrode dewatering and various dominant factors during drying.
Wixom et al. and Ahmad et al. reported a successful drying process for thick electrode coatings using a combination of convection drying and variable frequency microwaves. [ 64, 65 ] In a pilot line electrode dryer with a length of 1 m, the drying speed for NMP-based cathodes was tripled.
Our review paper comprehensively examines the dry battery electrode technology used in LIBs, which implies the use of no solvents to produce dry electrodes or coatings. In contrast, the conventional wet electrode technique includes processes for solvent recovery/drying and the mixing of solvents like N-methyl pyrrolidine (NMP).