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Quadruple the rate capability of high-energy batteries through a porous current collector design

Nature Energy (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Achieving extremely fast charging yet maintaining high energy density remains a challenge in the battery field. Traditional current collectors, being impermeable to electrolytes, hinder the movement of Li+ ions and restrict the high-rate capability of thick electrodes. Here we conceptualize a porous current collector for energy-dense and extremely fast-charging batteries. This porous design allows Li+ ions to pass through both the current collector and the separator simultaneously, thereby reducing the effective Li+ transport distance by half and quadrupling the diffusion-limited C-rate capability without compromising the energy density. Multilayer pouch cells equipped with this current collector demonstrate high specific energy (276 Wh kg−1) and remarkable fast-charging capabilities at rates of 4 C (78.3% state of charge), 6 C (70.5% state of charge) and 10 C (54.3% state of charge). This porous current collector design is compatible with existing battery manufacturing processes and other fast-charging strategies, enriching battery configurations for designing next-generation batteries.

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Fig. 1: The design principle of the PCC in batteries.
Fig. 2: Numerical simulation of batteries with a TCC and PCC.
Fig. 3: The main design concept of the PCC and its properties.
Fig. 4: Electrochemical performance of multilayer pouch cells with TCC and PCC.
Fig. 5: DPS reveals the Li0 plating event during fast charging.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study have been included in this article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. S.T.O. acknowledges support from the TomKat Center Fellowship for Translational Research at Stanford University. We thank the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities and the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility for the SEM, contact angle, tensile strength characterizations and Lesker sputter fabrication. We thank Dupont for providing the porous Kevlar film.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Yusheng Ye, Rong Xu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Yusheng Ye, Rong Xu, Wenxiao Huang, Wenbo Zhang, Jordan Otto Affeld, Andy Cui, Fang Liu, Xin Gao, Zhouyi Chen, Tony Li, Xin Xiao, Zewen Zhang, Yucan Peng, Rafael A. Vila & Yi Cui

  2. Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Huayue Ai

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Yecun Wu

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Solomon T. Oyakhire

  5. Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd, Nagaokakyo-shi, Kyoto, Japan

    Hideaki Kuwajima, Yoshiaki Suzuki, Ryuhei Matsumoto, Yasuyuki Masuda, Takahiro Yuuki & Yuri Nakayama

  6. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Yi Cui

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Contributions

Y.Y. and Y.C. conceived the concept. R.X., Y.M. and T.Y. performed the COMSOL simulation. W.H., F.L. and T.L. helped with the battery pressure testing and analysis. H.A., W.Z., J.O.A., A.C., Z.C., X.X., Z.Z., Y.P. and S.T.O. assisted with electrochemical experiments. Y.W. carried out the electronic conductivity measurement. X.G., H.K., R.M., Y.S., Y.M., T.Y. and Y.N. helped with the device fabrication, simulation and data analysis. Y.Y. and Y.C. wrote the paper. W.Z., R.A.V. and Y.C. revised the paper. All the authors contributed to the discussion of the results.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi Cui.

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Competing interests

H.K., Y.S., R.M., Y.M., T.Y. and Y.N. are employed by Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Energy thanks Leif Nyholm and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Methods, Note 1, Figs. 1–22 and Table 1.

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Ye, Y., Xu, R., Huang, W. et al. Quadruple the rate capability of high-energy batteries through a porous current collector design. Nat Energy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-024-01473-2

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