Understanding Electrolyte Filling of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes on the Pore Scale Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

Abstract

Electrolyte filling is a time-critical step during battery manufacturing that also affects battery performance. The underlying physical phenomena mainly occur on the pore scale and are hard to study experimentally. Therefore, here, the lattice Boltzmann method is used to study the filling of realistic 3D lithium-ion battery cathodes. Electrolyte flow through the nanoporous binder is modelled adequately. Besides process time, the influences of particle size, binder distribution, volume fraction and wetting behavior of active material and binder are investigated. Optimized filling conditions are discussed by pressure-saturation relationships. It is shown how the influencing factors affect the electrolyte saturation. The amount and distribution of entrapped residual gas are analyzed in detail. Both can adversely affect the battery performance. The results indicate how the filling process, the final electrolyte saturation, and also the battery performance can be optimized by adapting process parameters as well as electrode and electrolyte design.