Protection of battery electrodes against side reactions
A battery electrode composition is provided that comprises composite particles. Each of the composite particles in the composition (which may represent all or a portion of a larger composition) may comprise a porous electrode particle and a filler material. The porous electrode particle may comprise active material provided to store and release ions during battery operation. The filler material may occupy at least a portion of the pores of the electrode particle. The filler material may be liquid and not substantially conductive with respect to electron transport.
1. A battery electrode composition for a battery, comprising:
composite particles, each composite particle being a composite of a porous electrode particle that comprises active material provided to store and release ions during battery operation, and a filler material occupying at least a portion of the pores of the porous electrode particle,
wherein the filler material comprises a liquid and is not substantially conductive with respect to electron transport, and
wherein the filler material in the battery electrode composition is configured so as to substantially prevent direct contact between the active material and at least one component of an electrolyte used in the battery once the battery electrode composition is made part of an electrode of the battery.
2. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the filler material has an electrical conductivity less than 10 −6 S/cm.
3. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the active material comprises silicon, tin, antimony, phosphorous, or aluminum.
4. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the active material comprises a metal-fluoride-based material or a metal-sulfide-based material.
5. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein, for at least a portion of at least one of the porous electrode particles, the active material is porous.
6. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein, for at least a portion of at least one of the porous electrode particles, the active material is non-porous and the at least one porous electrode particle comprises a porous substrate.
7. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the filler material comprises one or more oils.
8. The battery electrode composition of claim 7 , wherein the one or more oils comprise one or more chemically-modified oils.
9. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the filler material comprises one or more monomers or one or more reactive oligomers.
10. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the filler material further comprises a solid.
11. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein the filler material comprises a first filler material having a first average molecular weight and a second filler material having a second average molecular weight different from the first average molecular weight.
12. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein each composite particle has an outer region and an inner region, the outer region having pores with a first average pore size and the inner region having pores with a second average pore size larger than the first average pore size.
13. The battery electrode composition of claim 12 , wherein the first average pore size is less than about 1 nm and the second average pore size is greater than about 3 nm.
14. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein each composite particle has an outer region and an inner region, the inner region comprises the filler material and the outer region does not comprise the filler material.
15. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 , wherein a volume fraction of the filler material in each composite particle changes from the center to the perimeter of the composite particle.
16. The battery electrode composition of claim 1 ,
wherein the liquid is configured to remain in a liquid phase during operation of the battery, or
wherein the liquid is transformed from the liquid phase into a solid phase before or during operation of the battery.
17. A slurry, comprising:
the battery electrode composition of claim 1 , and
a solvent composition.
18. The battery, comprising:
anode and cathode electrodes, wherein at least one of the anode or cathode electrodes comprises the battery electrode composition of claim 1 ;
an electrolyte composition comprising the electrolyte, the electrolyte composition ionically coupling the anode and the cathode electrodes; and
a separator electrically separating the anode and the cathode electrodes.
19. A method of fabricating a battery electrode composition for a battery, the method comprising:
forming porous electrode particles that each comprise active material provided to store and release ions during battery operation; and
infiltrating, into the porous electrode particles, a filler material occupying at least a portion of the pores of each porous electrode particle to produce composite particles, each composite particle being a composite of one of the porous electrode particles and a portion of the filler material,
wherein the filler material comprises a liquid and is not substantially conductive with respect to electron transport, and
wherein the filler material in the battery electrode composition is configured so as to substantially prevent direct contact between the active material and at least one component of an electrolyte used in the battery once the battery electrode composition is made part of an electrode of the battery.