Engineering advanced Lithium-ion batteries with additive manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables the fabrication of complex shapes and formfactors that are inefficient or impossible to produce with traditional subtractive machining tools. AM emerged in the 1980s to enable the rapid creation of functional prototypes (also known as rapid prototyping). The first commercial implementation of AM was a stereolithography (SLA) system developed by 3D Systems in 1987, wherein a laser solidified thin layers of a photoactive polymer solution. In the early 1990s, fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering, and other AM modalities began to emerge and have continued to grow in the decades since. Within the last ten years, AM has gained traction as an approach to fabricate Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because it enables (1) novel three-dimensional (3D) electrodes that optimize energy and power performance and (2) customizable battery shapes for integrated and mechanically robust batteries for portable device applications. As energy storage demands grow, so does the need for LIBs to come in a multitude of sizes, shapes, and materials that meet the needs of a given application. In this chapter, we review the main AM approaches that have been used to produce LIBs with a focus on FDM, direct-ink write (DIW), inkjet printing (IJP), aerosol jet printing (AJP), electrostatic spray deposition (ESD), stereolithography (SLA), and newer field-assisted (FA) methods.