The present disclosure is directed to a negative electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries, to a method for preparing the same, and to a lithium secondary battery including the same, the negative electrode active material including a porous core in which scaly silicon fragments are connected in an entangled manner; and a shell layer covering the core, where the shell layer includes a carbon-based material and silicon, and the shell layer has a thickness in a range of more than 10 to less than 60% with respect to an average particle diameter D50 of the negative electrode active material.

The present disclosure is directed to a negative electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries, to a method for preparing the same, and to a lithium secondary battery including the same, the negative electrode active material including a porous core in which scaly silicon fragments are connected in an entangled manner; and a shell layer covering the core, where the shell layer includes a carbon-based material and silicon.

A composite electrode includes two or more types of fibers forming a fiber network, comprising at least a first type of fibers and a second type of fibers. The first type of fibers comprises a first polymer and a first type of particles. The second type of fibers comprises a second polymer and a second type of particles. The second polymer is same as or different from the first polymer. The second type of particles are same as or different from the first type of particles.

Methods of forming a lithium-based negative electrode assembly are provided. A surface of a metal current collector is treated with a reducing plasma gas so that after the treating, a treated surface of the metal current collector is formed that has a contact angle of less than or equal to about 10° and has less than or equal to about 5% metal oxides. The metal current collector may include a metal, such as copper, nickel, and iron. A lithium metal is applied to the treated surface of the metal current collector in an environment substantially free from oxidizing species. Lithium metal flows over and adheres to the treated surface to form a layer of lithium. The layer of lithium may be a thin layer having a thickness of ≥about 1 μm to ≤about 75 μm thus forming the lithium metal negative electrode assembly.

One variation of a method for forming a battery includes: fabricating an anode collector in a region of a conductive film over a substrate; fabricating a cathode collector, interdigitated with the anode collector, in the region of the conductive film; forming an anode coupon of an anode material over the region of the conductive film; ablating the anode coupon to selectively remove segments of the anode material from the anode coupon and to form a set of anode fins over the anode collector; forming an electrolyte film across the set of anode fins; and depositing a cathode material over the cathode collector and between adjacent anode fins in the set of anode fins to form an interdigitated cathode.

A method of: forming an aerosol of a powder comprising one or more of lithium, germanium, phosphorus, sulfur, boron, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, aluminum, nitrogen, arsenic, niobium, titanium, vanadium, molybdenum, manganese, zinc, hafnium, and nickel and directing the aerosol at a substrate at a velocity that forms a film of the powder on the substrate. The method makes an article having an ionic conductor in the form of a film at most 0.5 mm thick.

The present disclosure relates to a method of making a composite product that may be used as a flexible electrode. An aerosolized mixture of nanotubes and an electrode active material is collected on a porous substrate, such as a filter, until it reaches a desired thickness. The resulting self-standing electrode may then be removed from the porous substrate and may operate as a battery electrode.

Articles and methods including layers for protection of electrodes in electrochemical cells are provided. As described herein, a layer, such as a protective layer for an electrode, may comprise a plurality of particles (e.g., crystalline inorganic particles, amorphous inorganic particles). In some embodiments, at least a portion of the plurality of particles (e.g., inorganic particles) are fused to one another. For instance, in some embodiments, the layer may be formed by aerosol deposition or another suitable process that involves subjecting the particles to a relatively high velocity such that fusion of particles occurs during deposition. In some embodiments, the layer (e.g., the layer comprising a plurality of particles) is an ion-conducting layer.

The present invention relates to an electrode comprising an organic compound prepared by polymerization of a triaryl amine having at least one reactive polymerizable group, whereby the organic compound has at least a bimodal pore size distribution. Moreover, the present invention relates to a method for the preparation of such an electrode.

A method and system for forming lithium anode devices are provided. In one embodiment, the methods and systems form pre-lithiated Group-IV alloy-type nanoparticles (NP's), for example, Li—Z where Z is Ge, Si, or Sn. In another embodiment, the methods and systems synthesize Group-IV nanoparticles and alloy the Group-IV nanoparticles with lithium. The Group-IV nanoparticles can be made on demand and premixed with anode materials or coated on anode materials. In yet another embodiment, the methods and systems form lithium metal-free silver carbon (“Ag—C”) nanocomposites (NC's). In yet another embodiment, a method utilizing silver (PVD) and carbon (PECVD) co-deposition to make anode coatings that can regulate lithium nucleation energy to minimize dendrite formation is provided.