更安全、更持久的汽车电池

Safer, Longer-Lasting Batteries for Cars

更安全、更持久的汽车电池

A startup company has a printing method for solid-state batteries.

一家新兴公司用印刷方法生产固态电池

By Katherine Bourzac

凯瑟琳 布尔扎克

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2010年7月20日，星期二

An Orlando startup has developed new manufacturing techniques that could improve the stability and lifetime of batteries used in electric vehicles. Planar Energy, a spin-off of the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL), is working on scaling up solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

奥兰多一家新兴公司研发了一种新的电池生产技术，可提高电动力车辆电池的稳定性和持久性。该公司名为“平面能源”，是国家可再生能源实验室（NREL）的新创公司。该公司正致力于改进固态锂离子电池。

(Picture) Solid power: Planar Energy CEO Scott Faris holds a solid-state battery cathode printed using new manufacturing techniques.

Credit: Planar Energy  

（图）固态能源：平面能源首席执行官斯科特 法里斯拿着一个固态电池阴极，该阴极是使用新的生产技术印刷出来的。

配图文字：平面能源

Conventional batteries, which typically use a liquid electrolyte, can suffer from undesirable chemical reactions that damage the battery's cathode. Replacing the liquid electrolyte with a solid ion conductor can improve battery stability and lifetime, and also allow a battery to be smaller because additional components aren't needed to maintain stability. Solid electrolytes are also compatible with a wider range of battery chemistries that could potentially offer higher power or storage density.

典型的传统电池，使用的是电解液，会发生令人讨厌的化学反应，从而损坏电池的阴极。用固态离子导体替代电解液可改善电池的稳定性和使用寿命，还可使电池体积较小，因为不再需要附加部件来维持稳定。固态电解质还能与众多的电池用化学成分相兼容，有可能会提供更高的电能或存储密度。

But solid-state batteries are expensive to make and have been difficult to scale up to the size needed for laptops or vehicles. Like other solid-state devices, solid-state batteries are normally made using complex, costly, vacuum-based deposition methods. The vacuum deposition limits the thickness of solid-state batteries, which, in turn, limits their energy storage capacity. So these thin-film batteries have been limited to use in small devices.

但固态电池制造成本高昂，且难以改进到笔记本电脑或车辆所需的尺寸。同其他固态装置一样，固态电池通常是用复杂、昂贵、基于真空的沉积法来制造的。真空沉积限制了固态电池的厚度，从而限制了它的储能能力。所以这些薄膜电池只限于在小型设备中使用。

Efforts to use printing processes to make thicker solid-state batteries have been stymied by the lack of a printable solid electrolyte material (printed electrodes must usually be combined with a liquid electrolyte to carry the ions back and forth during charging and recharging).

人们努力使用印刷方法来制造较厚的固态电池，但苦于缺少可印刷的固态电解质原料（印制的电极必须与电解液相结合，才能在充电和放电时来来去去地运送离子）。

Planar Energy has developed a roll-to-roll process for making larger solid lithium-ion batteries. The company, which received $4 million in funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy program this spring, says it can print solid batteries that offer three times more storage than liquid lithium-ion batteries of the same size. This boost in energy storage is possible primarily because the company's all-solid batteries don't require many of the support structures and materials that take up space in conventional batteries, making more space for energy storage.

平面能源公司研发出可制造较大的固态锂离子电池的“卷到卷”工序。今春，该公司收到来自高级研究项目署能源课题的研究基金，四百万美元。公司声称他们印刷的固态电池能够储存的电能三倍于同尺寸液态锂离子电池。传统电池上的许多支撑结构和材料很占地方，而该公司生产的纯固态电池则不需要这些，因此节省出更多的空间用于能量储存。这可能是该公司的电池储能效率提升的主要原因。

Planar Energy expects to reduce capital costs by half compared with solid-state battery manufacturing using high-vacuum machinery. And the company says its processes can be used to make cells big enough to power electric vehicles.

相对于使用高真空度机器进行固态电池的生产，平面能源公司的新工艺有望将主要生产成本减半。公司声称他们的方法可制出足够大的电池来为电动汽车供电。

"They're able to make a solid electrolyte using a roll-to-roll process--that's their strength," says Sudipta Seal, director of the Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center at the University of Central Florida. The Florida center has independently verified the conductivity of Planar Energy's electrolyte, which is as high as that of the liquid electrolytes used in today's lithium-ion batteries. "The data show that the materials performance is very good," says Seal.

“他们能够用“滚到滚”的工艺制造固态电解质——这就是他们的资力，”中部佛罗里达大学的高级材料加工与分析中心主任苏迪帕特 西尔说。佛州中心独立验证了平面能源公司的电解质的导电性，发现它与我们现在用的锂离子电池中的电解液导电性一样好。“数据显示该材料性能非常好。”西尔说。

The key to Planar's technology is its printing process, says CEO Scott Faris. The advantage of vacuum deposition is that it's possible to make very high-quality films, which result in materials with higher conductivity. Normally, this film quality is difficult to match using roll-to-roll processes.

平面能源公司的要诀在于他的印刷工序，首席执行官斯科特 法里斯如是说。真空沉积法的优势在于它可以制出高品质的薄膜，从而成为高导电性的材料。通常这种薄膜无法同使用“滚到滚”工艺生产出来的产品相媲美。

Faris says Planar's process is driven by chemical self-assembly. As chemical precursors stream onto the surface of a rolling metal or plastic substrate, they react with one another to form a network of nanoparticles. The company has adapted this self-assembling chemistry to make both the electrodes and the electrolyte.

法里斯说，平面能源公司的工艺是靠化学自聚合来驱动的。各化学母质流向滚动中的金属或塑料基片的表面，他们互相作用，形成一层纳米级微粒网状结构。公司已经改造这种自聚合化学物质，用于制造电极和电解质。

"These batteries have many of the same attributes as thin-film batteries, but can be packaged in large formats," says Roland Pitts, a senior scientist at NREL who has agreed to join the company. Planar Energy is developing three different battery chemistries. One of them combines lithium manganese oxide with other ions, and operates at about three to five volts with a charge capacity of 200 milliamp hours per gram. Pitts says this compares favorably with lithium cobalt oxide--a high-energy, high-power battery chemistry currently on the market.

“这些电池的许多特性同薄膜电池相当，但可以组成大号的电池，”国家可再生能源实验室的资深科学家罗兰 皮茨说道。他已经同意加入平面能源公司。平面能源正在研发三种不同的电池化学配方。其中之一是把锂锰氧化物与其他离子化合，充电电压三到五伏，容量200毫安时每克。皮茨说这优于氧化锂钴——目前市场上的一种高能大功率电池配方。

Faris says the company plans to build its pilot line next year, and will start by making batteries for portable electronics to prove the viability of the printed solid-state batteries. In the long-term, he says, solid batteries have the potential to scale to automotive batteries. "We want to leapfrog current technologies and push onto something better," says Pitts of Planar's goals.

法里斯说公司计划明年建一条试验性生产线，将开始生产可移动电子设备用电池，以证明印刷固态电池的实用性。长远来看，固态电池具备升级为车用电池的潜力。“我们想要将现在的技术向更加理想跃进，”皮茨谈及平面能源的目标时说道。

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