(760c) A Flame Spray Pyrolysis Process for Making Complex Metal Oxide Nanopowders for Lithium Ion Battery

The EV Everywhere Blueprint of DOE has a goal to cut lithium ion battery costs from their current $500/kWh to $125/kWh. This 75% reduction can only be achieved with an array of technological innovations and process integrations. One major factor to the battery cost is the positive electrode, which is made of complex metal oxide powders. Therefore, to reduce the positive electrode cost has been a major effort in the battery cost reduction endeavor.

Flame (combustion) processes are the most economic ones to produce fine powders and have been used to produce pigment titanium oxide and fused silica in large volumes. In this work a flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) process has been used to make metal oxide nanopowders for the positive electrode materials at low cost. In particular, the work was focused on making metal oxides of Ni-Mn-Co, or NMC, together with lithium. NMC nanopowders can provide high power for lithium ion battery cells. The FSP process employs low cost ionic liquid precursors for green manufacturing of the battery material. The synthesis, characterization, and battery testing of the NMC powder materials made from the FSP process will be presented in this talk.