A method includes, by a folding station: receiving an anode assembly including anode collectors connected by anode interconnects and coated with a separator; receiving a cathode assembly including cathode collectors connected by cathode interconnects; locating a first anode collector over a folding stage; locating a first cathode collector over the first anode collector to form a first battery cell between the first anode collector and the first cathode collector; folding a first anode interconnect to locate a second anode collector over the first cathode collector to form a second battery cell between the first cathode collector and the second anode collector; folding a first cathode interconnect to locate a second cathode collector over the second anode collector to form a third battery cell between the second anode collector and the second cathode collector; wetting the separator with solvated ions; and loading the anode and cathode assemblies into a battery housing.

A method of making a positive electrode includes forming a slurry of particles using an electrode formulation, a diluent, and oxalic acid, coating the slurry on a collector and drying the coating on the collector to form the positive electrode. The electrode formulation includes an electrode active material, a conductive carbon source, an organic polymeric binder, and a water soluble polymer. The diluent consists essentially of water.

Provided are a binder resin for an electrode of a lithium secondary battery containing a solvent-soluble polyimide having a repeating unit represented by the following Formula [I], and a method of producing the binder resin for an electrode. ##STR00001## (In the formula, Z represents an aromatic or alicyclic tetracarboxylic dianhydride residue, and Ar is an aromatic diamine residue having a carboxyl group and an aromatic diamine residue having an aromatic ether bond, or an aromatic diamine residue having a phenylindan structure).

When a layered rock-salt type cathode active material and a sulfide solid electrolyte are mixed to be a cathode mixture, and an all solid-state battery is obtained using this mixture, oxygen is released from the cathode active material when the battery is charged, and the sulfide solid electrolyte is oxidized, increasing the battery internal resistance. To increase the concentration of cobalt inside the active material, and at the same time to lower the concentration of cobalt of the surface of the cathode active material, to suppress oxygen release in charging, specifically, a cathode mixture includes: a cathode active material; and a sulfide solid electrolyte, wherein the cathode active material has a layered rock-salt crystal phase, and is made of a composite oxide containing Li, Ni, Co, and Mn, and the concentration of cobalt inside the cathode active material is higher than that of a surface of the cathode active material.

A method of forming edge materials on an electrochemical cell component having a metallic foil substrate including a conductive coating on top and bottom surfaces and first and second edge portions extending laterally outward beyond the conductive coating, includes pulling the metallic foil substrate from a roll, feeding the metallic foil substrate through a profile machine and forming notches within the first and second edge portions that extend inwardly from outermost edges of the first and second edge portions a distance less than a distance between the outermost edges and the conductive coating, and define a plurality of electrode tabs, feeding the strip of metallic foil substrate sequentially through a plurality of 3-dimensional printing machines and printing edge materials onto the electrode tabs and the first and second edge portions between the plurality of electrode tabs, and rolling the strip of metallic foil substrate onto a roll.

An electrochemical cell includes a. a cathode capable of reversibly accommodating lithium ions; b. an anode containing metallic lithium as active material; and c. a separator arranged between the cathode and the anode, wherein d. the anode includes a porous, electrically conductive matrix having an open-pored structure; and e. the metallic lithium of the anode is incorporated in pores of the matrix.

A nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery according to one embodiment of the present disclosure comprises a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a nonaqueous electrolyte solution; the negative electrode comprises a negative electrode collector and a negative electrode active material layer that is provided on the negative electrode collector; the negative electrode active material layer contains, as negative electrode active materials, graphite particles A and graphite particles B; the graphite particles A have an internal void fraction of 5% or less; the graphite particles B have an internal void fraction of from 8% to 20%; if the negative electrode active material layer is halved in the thickness direction, a region on the half closer to the outer surface contains more graphite particles A than a region on the half closer to the negative electrode collector.

A negative electrode comprises a negative electrode collector, a first negative electrode mixture layer, and a second negative electrode mixture layer the ratio of the void fraction (S2) among the graphite particles in the second negative electrode mixture layer to the void fraction (S1) among the graphite particles in the first negative electrode mixture layer, namely S2/S1 is from 1.1 to 2.0: and the ratio of the packing density (D2) of the second negative electrode mixture layer to the packing density (D1) of the first negative electrode mixture layer, namely D2/D1 is from 0.9 to 1.1. A separator has a first surface that is in contact with a positive electrode and a second surface that is in contact with the negative electrode; and the contact angle of the first surface with ethylene carbonate is smaller than the contact angle of the second surface with ethylene carbonate.

The present disclosure relates to a lithium-replenishing material, a preparation method thereof, and a lithium-ion battery. The lithium-replenishing material comprises metal lithium particles and conductive material, and the conductive material includes a built-in segment embedded in metal lithium particles and an exposed segment external to metal lithium particles; the electrical conductivity of the conductive material is greater than 100 s/cm. The lithium-replenishing material of the present disclosure can accomplish the electron conduction between the metal lithium particles and the anode active material through the conductive material, which increases the channel of electron conduction, and at the same time facilitates the transport of lithium ions, and improves the efficiency of lithium-replenishing significantly by rapid intercalation process of lithium ions, thereby resulting in inhibiting the formation of isolated lithium effectively and avoiding the formation of dendrites piercing the battery separator and causing potential safety hazards.

A method for generating hydrogen and making graphenic carbon particles is disclosed comprising introducing an inert carrier gas and a hydrocarbon precursor material comprising a material capable of forming a two-carbon-fragment species and/or methane into a thermal zone, heating the hydrocarbon precursor material in the thermal zone to decompose the hydrocarbon precursor material and form the hydrogen and the graphenic carbon particles, and contacting the gaseous stream with a quench stream. Graphenic carbon particles having an average aspect ratio greater than 3:1, a B.E.T. specific surface area of from 70 to 1000 square meters per gram, and a Raman spectroscopy 2D/G peak ratio of at least 1:1.