A group of researchers from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST has presented an electrode manufactured through a "dry" process that is five times thicker than existing models. This is reported by Tech Xplore .
As the publication notes, as the demand for lithium-ion batteries increases, developers are striving to maximize the thickness of the electrode while minimizing inactive components.
Traditional "wet" manufacturing methods do not allow for the creation of thicker electrodes, as due to the characteristics of powder electrodes, they often stick together during the solvent evaporation stage.
A research team led by Professor Ken Min Cheong has solved this problem by creating an electrode that is five times thicker than normal. The total capacity of the electrodes is an impressive 20 mAh/cm2.
This is significantly more than commercial counterparts. When integrated into batteries, this electrode can increase the range of electric vehicles by approximately 14%.
“While conventional batteries for electric vehicles make traveling between Seoul and Busan problematic, our technology is able to provide a real-world travel of over 600 kilometers on a single charge,“ said Professor Ken Min Cheong.
This achievement not only increases the battery capacity, but also supports faster charging. In typical scenarios, increased electrode thickness leads to an increase in the lithium-ion transfer distance.
Thereby reducing the output and slowing down the charging speed. However, the use of specialized materials, such as a porous spherical conductive agent, can mitigate these problems, which is not possible using traditional "wet" methods.
“This technology marks a significant breakthrough that improves both the capacity and performance of environmentally friendly dry electrodes,“ said Hayson Oh, one of the study's authors.