Bioinspired, Tree‐Root‐Like Interfacial Designs for Structural Batteries with Enhanced Mechanical Properties
Abstract
Structural batteries are attractive for weight reduction in vehicles, such as cars and airplanes, which requires batteries to have both excellent mechanical properties and electrochemical performance. This work develops a scalable and feasible tree‐root‐like lamination at the electrode/separator interface, which effectively transfers load between different layers of battery components and thus dramatically enhances the flexural modulus of pouch cells from 0.28 to 3.1 GPa. The underlying mechanism is also analyzed by finite element simulations. Meanwhile, the interfacial lamination has a limited effect on the electrochemical performance of Li‐ion cells. A graphite/LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 full cell with such interfacial lamination delivers a steady discharge capacity of 148.6 mAh g−1 at C/2 and 95.5% retention after 500 cycles. Moreover, the specific energy only decreases by 3%, which is the smallest reduction reported so far in structural batteries. A prototype of “electric wings” is also demonstrated, which allows an aircraft model to fly steadily. This work illustrates that engineering interfacial adhesion is an effective and scalable approach to develop structural batteries with excellent mechanical and electrochemical properties.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 28, 2021
- Source ID
- 10.1002/aenm.202100997
Entities
People
- Tianwei Jin
- Xi Chen
- Xiaoyu Fan
- Yirui Ma
- Yu Luo
- Yuan Yang
- Zechen Xiong
- Zeyu Hui
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Columbia University