Customized Vacuum Coating Systems
PVD Lithium Thin Foil
Li Web Coaters and Coating Processing
Custom Samples and Batch Production
Coating Equipment Engineering
Lithium PVD coating advantages and performance capabilities
• Different substrates
1…20 microns thick Lithium
coatings can be deposited in one
pass onto thin metallic foils or
thin metallized polymer films
Battery separator material
“Celgard” with 2.5 microns of
Lithium (x2000).
• High Purity Li
Since Lithium is deposited in high
vacuum, it comes out in a “pure”
state: vacuum deposited Lithium
has minimal oxide layers. Lithium
batteries benefit by high levels of
purity.
17 microns thick Copper foil
with 19 microns of Lithium
(x 500).
100
Vacuum depositted Li thin film
90
80
Content (at%)
70
Commercially available rolled Li foil on the market
60
50
40
Commercially available rolled Li foil on the market
30
• High surface activity
Coating deposition conditions
provide high Lithium surface
activity, what is inaccessible for
traditional rolling.
20
Vacuum depositted Li thin film
10
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
Sputtering time (min.)
XPS analysis of Li metal Comparison of vacuum deposited Li thin film and rolling Li foil
Courtesy of SUMITOMO: SEI technical Review, Number 61, January 2006
• Low cost
PVD processing has an important feature:
the less metal is required, the lower is
the product cost. As a result, there is cost
advantage with PVD coated Lithium in
comparison with conventional rolling.
• Optimal thickness
Lithium coating thickness could be selected
correspondingly the battery chemistry.
No excess Lithium!
Battery with
PVD coated Li
material
Battery with
common Li
material
Current collector
Cathode
Electrolyte
30–40
microns
Li Anode
Current collector
~ 8 microns
of Li in use
Comparison of batteries with conventional rolling and PVD coated Li
8–10
microns
Capabilities of PVD Lithium coating equipment in Sidrabe laboratory
• SIDRABE has research and development areas
for Li coating investigation and samples manufacturing under contracts with potential customers. We keep SIDRABE made two Laboratory Roll-to-Roll Lithium coaters associated
with Dry Room and web slit machine inside it.
Coated material is transferred into the Glove box
for packaging into sealed me­tal-polymeric bags
filled with Argon.
• Both web coaters are equipped with the processor
drums, where coating deposition heat is transferred through the gas gap (so-called “venting
drums”, designed by SIDRABE). The web effective
cooling allows to deposit thick layer in the single
pass. At preliminary works execution we obtain
actual information on design and process para­
meters on coming production scale equipment.
• Sidrabe can steadily deposit up to 20 microns
of continuous single-sided or double-sided Li on
more than 8…10 microns thick metallic foil and
up to 10 microns of Li on PP or PET films. In case
of PET film it is necessary to deposit preliminary a
metallic sub-layer to prevent Li interaction with
polymer moisture.
An example of double-side Li coated foil and initial roll slit geometry
Double-side Li coated foil
150 mm Cu foil (Initial roll)
100 ± 2 mm
Li: δ ± 10 %, micron
100 ± 2 mm
A ± 0.1 mm
Possibility 1
Middle slit material (w/o
free copper edges)
A ± 1 mm
Possibility 2
Side slit material with
copper substrate edge
25 ± 1 mm
Contacts:
17 Krustpils Str.
Riga, LV1073, LATVIA
Tel: +371 67249-806
Fax: +371 67139-506
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.sidrabe.com