Nucleation and growth of tin particles into three dimensional composite active anode for lithium high capacity energy storage device
View Patent ↗Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to lithium-ion batteries, and more specifically, to a system and method for fabricating such batteries using thin-film processes that form three-dimensional structures. In one embodiment, an anodic structure used to form an energy storage device is provided. The anodic structure comprises a flexible conductive substrate, a plurality of conductive microstructures formed on the conductive substrate, comprising a plurality of columnar projections and dendritic structures formed over the plurality of columnar projections and a plurality of tin particles formed on the plurality of conductive microstructures. In another embodiment, the anodic structure further comprises a tin nucleation layer comprising tin particles formed on the flexible conductive substrate between the flexible conductive substrate and the plurality of conductive microstructures.
1. A method for forming an anode structure, comprising:
depositing tin particles on a flexible conductive substrate;
forming a plurality of conductive columnar microstructures over the tin particles and flexible conductive substrate;
forming a dendritic structure over the conductive columnar microstructures; and
depositing tin particles over the dendritic structure.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tin particles are nano-particles having a particle size between about 10 nm and about 50 nm.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tin particles are micro-particles having a particle size of about 1 micron.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
depositing a composite material selected from the group comprising carbon, silicon, graphite, LiTiO 2 , and combinations thereof over the dendritic structure; and
forming a separator layer over the composite material.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the conductive columnar microstructure is a copper microstructure and the dendritic structure is a copper-tin dendritic structure.